Goods, trade, and consumer services

The Internet promises to give marketing the same boost in productivity that new operational strategies have given to manufacturing.

You can learn a lot about consumer marketing in the developing world by looking at how retailers engage with shoppers.

J.C. Penney and its CEO Ron Johnson have parted ways. The news wasn’t terribly surprising as 2012 had been a challenging year: sales were down by $4.3B, the company lost close to $1B, and its stock price dropped by more than 50%. Despite Johnson’s and his supporters’ pleas of “give us more time,” Penney’s board […]

A second generation of electronic commerce is emerging, one that will be shaped more by strategy than by experimentation. The battle for competitive advantage will be waged along three dimensions: reach, affiliation, and richness.

New technologies can be dazzling. But do they represent the future of retailing? Have the fundamentals really changed?

Safe to say the management team at Maclaren is having a terrible week. On Monday its US subsidiary issued a press release announcing a recall of every baby stroller it has sold in the United States in the past decade — which means about one million units. The purpose is to install a cover for […]

How the company finances its growth.

Despite high-profile attempts at innovation, the industry has failed to reduce its environmental impact so far.

Smartphones should be a retailer’s best friend.

The U.S. may be the world’s leading innovator, but it won’t be for long if investors, regulators, and the legal establishment continue to penalize companies for risk taking, says Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness. Recently, the council’s National Innovation Initiative, a leadership network of CEOs and university presidents, released a report in […]

Lots of companies are buying sophisticated software to make personalized pitches to Web site customers. Problem is, customers don’t seem to care.

Local manufacturing and online sales channels.

Android phones may be technological marvels, but they’ll remain second best until they focus on solving problems.

360-degree feedback is all the rage in companies big and small. But it is frequently bureaucratic, politically charged, and agonizing. The good news is that by understanding four paradoxes inherent to peer appraisal, managers can take some of the pain out of the process—and get better results in.

So riddle me this: A business that generates an estimated $400 million in revenue, with 550 employees, and which sells an iconic product that was regularly praised as a model of innovation, is going to be shut down. In an analysis of Cisco’s decision to shut down its Flip video recorder division, the New York […]

Media entrepreneur Kramer looks at three French companies that use low-tech ways to better connect with customers. Luxury-goods maker Boucheron hosts...

Target is getting nervous, for the first time in a while. Some Target shoppers are browsing comfortably in the company’s high-design stores, then closing the deal online with lower-priced vendors. It’s enough of a phenomenon that CEO Gregg Steinhafel recently penned a letter to his suppliers with a competitive battle cry: “we aren’t willing…to let […]

The future of shopping in the post-covid world.

How to build trust in a new era.

Companies often face new rivals, technologies, regulations, and other environmental changes that seem to come out of left field. How can they see these...