Links & Information About Retailing

Here’s a compilation of interesting links related to retailing that I’ve come across recently:

Comic Stop expands comic book store chain in Seattle area: This article talks about the expansion of a niche comic store in Seattle. The philosophy of the owners about how to expand and how to make their stores appeal to customers definitely applies to lots of other niche retailers like scrapbooking.

The Surprising Power of Negative Reviews (and it’s not what you think): I’ve mentioned here before about the power of having product reviews on your website if you are an etailer, and this article – featuring a case study of Oriental Trading – illustrates very well how negative review information posted by customers can be useful to site owners.

Stores have to excite, execute, entertain: This article contains great advice for running a retail store in the current economy, and some good warnings about the long-term impact of using common tactics that stores tend to turn to at times like these.

A little freebie goes a long way: Advice here is aimed at etailers but some of this could also be implemented in some form by brick-and-mortar retailers. I have to say I have seen some of these things used by scrapbook web stores in the past and been impressed by it.

New Study Confirms The Value Of Free Shipping: This article on an etailing study provides information on the promotional value of free shipping to online stores, but if you look a little closer at the content it also provides information on what the advantages are that brick-and-mortar stores can have over etailers for some consumers.