Retailers need to have both online and offline strategies in place to market their business in a continuously evolving industry. If you’re a retail business owner who’s in need of inspiration and creative new ideas to engage your customers or improve your operations, check out our round-up of the best retail blogs of 2017. We’ve scoured the net in search of the most interesting and insightful retail blogs to give you the latest on how to rise above the clutter and attract more customers.
Snap Retail
Snap RetailEditor/Primary Writer: Zoe Sadler
Favorite Recent Post: The SnapRetail 60/30/10 Social Media Rule: The 60/30/10 rule is a social media marketing technique that helps you maximize your social media impact by leveraging engaging content, sharing information from non-competitive businesses and local or industry organizations, and promoting products and services.
About the Blog: SnapRetail produces blog posts that provides small business owners with ideas on how to create and update their own responsive website, send engaging email marketing campaigns, and connect with customers through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
RetailWire
Editor/Primary Writer: George Anderson, Tom Ryan, Matthew Stern
Favorite Recent Post: How Will Smaller Rivals Survive In An Amazon And Walmart World?: A new report by analysts at Moody’s asserts that, in today’s marketplace, fierce competition between Amazon.com and Walmart is creating even more competitive disparities. How do smaller rivals survive in a retail environment dominated by large players such as Amazon and Walmart?
About the Blog: RetailWire is retailing’s premier online discussion site, serving the industry for over 15 years with compelling content that goes well beyond headline reporting. RetailWire’s editors post daily topics worthy of commentary by the RetailWire BrainTrust panel. The results are virtual round tables covering the most dynamic trends affecting retailing today.
Kizer and Bender’s Retail Adventures Blog
About the Blog: Kizer and Bender are consumer anthropologists. Their Retail Adventures Blog offers a unique perspective on the most relevant goings-on in retail today. It offers specific and in-depth tips on connecting with customers, setting your sales floor to sell, and everything else that pertains to retail. Or as Kizer and Bender like to say, Retail Adventures is loaded with non-stop traffic-building, profit-producing, attention-grabbing, sales-generating, competition-miffing, strategies, tactics, tips and techniques no retailer can afford to miss.
Retailgeek
RetailgeekEditor/Primary Writer: Jason “Retailgeek” Goldberg
Favorite Recent Post: Episode 89 Hot Take Amazon Acquires Whole Foods: A podcast episode covering Retailgeek’s initial impressions of Amazon’s announcement to acquire Whole Foods. The blog covers the basics of the deal, Wall Streets reaction, the likely impact to the grocery category, and the winners and losers.
About the Blog: Retailgeek covers e-commerce and shopper marketing as well as a weekly companion podcast called the Jason & Scot show where the hosts interview the top business leaders in the e-commerce industry and break down the industry current events.
Retail Insider
Retail InsiderEditor/Primary Writer: Glynn Davis
Favorite Recent Post: Innovative Retailer – ‘Stew Leonard’s: Regular column Innovative Retailers scours the world to find interesting retail models. This time it focused its sights in the US with a store that has retail theatre in pails: Stew Leonard’s.
About the Blog: Retail Insider is a well established free subscription website that does not simply publish re-hashed news stories. Retail Insider instead seeks to add value to its readership by offering exclusive content based around opinions and thought pieces that all have the objective of giving a new viewpoint or a different take on a specific topic in retail.
Retail TouchPoints
Editor/Primary Writer: Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief
Favorite Recent Post: Virtual Reality In Retail? I’m In!: This blog post discusses the possibilities and potential of virtual reality technologies and strategies for retailers. Examples shared include McDonald’s, Nabisco and Cailler Chocolate.
About the Blog: Retail TouchPoints delivers cutting edge content to retail executives designed to improve the customer experience in the world of omnichannel retailing. In addition to the blog, Retail TouchPoints offers an e-newsletter, special reports, exclusive benchmark research, retail awards programs and a content-rich web site featuring daily news updates and multi-media interviews.
Medallion Retail
Medallion RetailEditor/Primary Writer: Bradley Daves
Favorite Recent Post: 46,000 Shoppers Can’t Be Wrong; Omnichannel Works: Many brick-and-mortar retailers are finding themselves challenged by the short-term pressures of sales growth – and the long-term positioning of their businesses. But physical retail incumbents have one surprising advantage over their online competitors – physical stores. This post is about how consumers still seek meaningful connections with brands – how they invest emotionally and demand the same in return.
About the Blog: The Medallion Retail Blog provides musings, insights and inspiration for retail marketers, large and small. We offer opinion and education about brand storytelling, idea-building and in-store experience creation, with a spotlight on signage, display, social media integration and pop-up retail.
Vend Retail Blog
About the Blog: One of the cool features we love on the Vend Retail Blog is their “Vender of the Week,” in which they interview an individual retailer and dig into the specifics of their niche, what they’re doing in the marketplace, and their take on the business. The Vend blog also offers plenty of article on topics like retail marketing, managing associates, and boosting your sales.
Insider Trends
Insider TrendsAbout the Blog: Insider Trends is a leading London-based retail futures agency that helps global brands create world-leading and profitable retail spaces. It is a resource for retailers looking to clarify what’s coming next in the world of retail, and how they can get ahead of their competitors. The blog shares the latest trends, explains in simple terms what developments in technology mean for the retail business, and highlights examples of world-leading retail that retailers can learn from.
Retail Minded
Editor/Primary Writer: Nicole Leinbach Reyhle
Favorite Recent Post: Showroomers & Webroomers: How To Reach Today’s Shoppers: With the onslaught of the digital revolution, the nature of the retail industry has shifted. The days of simply walking into a store and making a purchase are seldom. Today’s shoppers – showroomers and webroomers – want higher transparency and more consumer options, making competition fiercer than ever. As a result, it is up to every retailer to adjust their business practices and utilize more up-to-date and effective marketing strategies.
About the Blog: Retail Minded offers insight on all things retail, including insight for traditional brick and mortar stores, online retailers, mobile commerce and more. Through the years, Retail Minded has provided independent retailers and small business owners leadership, resources and trusted support thanks to the various contributors, industry leaders and like-minded partners that Retail Minded works with.
Specialty Stores Services
About the Blog: The Specialty Services Blog is focused on helping the independent retailer with tips and ideas on how to grow their business covering different aspects of running retail stores – offline and online.
Capterra Retail Management Blog
Capterra Retail Management BlogEditor/Primary Writer: Andrew Marder
Favorite Recent Post: The Average Pay of a Retail Worker in the US: We used the Bureau of Labor Statistics data from across the US to find the places where retail workers were thriving, what skills employers valued, and how workers could determine their worth.
About the Blog: The Capterra retail blog gives retail SMBs and employees the tools they need to be successful. They focus on using software and technology to increase revenue and cut costs, while keeping customers and employees happy.
Retail Dive
Editor/Primary Writers: Laura Heller, Corinne Ruff, Ben Unglesbee, Daphne Howland, and Cara Salpini
Favorite Recent Post: 10 Major Retailers That Could Go Bankrupt In 2017: Retailers have been going bankrupt in 2017 at a record rate not seen since the recession. This post takes a look at the major retailers who are struggling financially and might fall into bankruptcy in the coming months or years.
About the Blog: Retail Dive keeps the retail industry up-to-speed on the latest trends that are transforming the way consumers shop and how companies deliver products. It covers the news and trends that matters most to industry decision makers, and analyze what it means for the future of retail.
The Retail Doctor
Editor/Primary Writer: Bob Phibbs
Favorite Recent Post: 9 Ways To Get Better At Selling In Retail: You’ve probably heard it said of someone, “They could sell (snow, ice, a refrigerator) to an Eskimo,” or something similar to that. But how did they get that way? Is the ability to excel at retail selling an instinctive talent that you have to be born with and that can’t be learned? Not at all. Almost anyone can learn to be a great retail seller if they follow these 9 practices.
About the Blog: The Retail Doctor Blog is focused on teaching the skills to create an exceptional experience for every shopper or potential customer you meet. It goes beyond lip service to a profound reset of how to open your heart to another human being. By sharing stories of clients both large and small as well as shopping experiences, the blog hopes to inspire entrepreneurs to go farther than merely selling an item or service but to changing the shopper’s life.
RetailNext Blog
About the Blog: The RetailNext blog strives to provide timely and topical articles designed to help retailers become better retailers. While considering the cross-channel demands of today’s shoppers and the retail industry, as the leading provider of retail IoT smart store solutions, RetailNext ensures post are inclusive of all aspects of the retail industry, including brick-and-mortar retail.
About the Blog: Learn modern retailing tips, trends, and best practices to grow your business in a modern retailing world. Learn how to grow in-store foot traffic, grow your website traffic, and grow your store revenues.
Independent Retailer
Editor/Primary Writer: Meaghan Brophy
Favorite Recent Post: Snapchat for Any Business: This post looks into the strategies for small and mid-size retailers that can be utilized in Snapchat to grow their business.
About the Blog: Independent Retailer is the retail industry’s trusted source for news, tips, innovations, and product sourcing. The 26-year-old brand covers everything from tech, marketing, management, trade shows, products and suppliers, and industry news. Independent Retailer is updated regularly and has a print and digital monthly magazine. Also find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Mi9 Retail Blog
About the Blog: Mi9 Retail believes that great retail experiences take place when optimized product planning and inventory management intersect perfectly with skillful customer engagement and point-of-purchase execution. Their blog is about this equation, and the trends and technology influencing the world of retail.
STORIS Blog
About the Blog: STORIS blog explores current retail trends, how STORIS’ products and services can improve a retail business’ operations, and how technology plays a major role in selling strategies today. The blog is very tech focused and plays off of current trends in home furnishings retail.
Innovate: The Nova Blog
Innovate: The Nova Blog Editor/Primary Writer: Haley Whisennand
Favorite Recent Post: Marketing Your Small Business the Easy Way: Targeting an exact audience on top of running your business can feel like a lot, especially when you don’t even know where to start. Luckily, there are cheap, easy-to-implement marketing solutions that you can do in just a few spare minutes every day.
About the Blog: INNOVATE: The Nova Blog is focused on providing business owners and managers at all experience levels tips and tricks to make their store thrive. The blog focuses on current trends and tech tools that can help physical stores attract and keep customers in an increasingly digital era. From brand new small businesses to multi-location chains, INNOVATE has resources that will help boost the bottom line.
Design4Retail
Design4RetailEditor/Primary Writer: Brittany Reid or Charlotte Walsh
Favorite Recent Post: Storytelling: Humanising Your Brand at Retail: This post focuses on how brands can humanise themselves via in-store narratives. It discusses the benefits of generating positive engagement through storytelling.
About the Blog: The blog is primarily focused on retail design trends, influenced by their knowledge and experience in the sector. Design4Retail aims to appeal to every brand; those already established and looking to keep on-top of latest trends or start-up brands ready to take the plunge into physical retail for the first time. The blog intersperses the blog with projects of their own or the latest stores which they feel deserve a little shout out.
Scaling Retail
Editor/Primary Writer: Syama Meagher, Chief Retail Strategist
Favorite Recent Post: Master the Basics of Retail: Master the basics of retail before you launch or start to scale your fashion brand. This post covers retail no-no’s and how to grow your retail business holistically.
About the Blog: The blog for fashion businesses in launch and growth stages. Scaling Retail Insights provides retail strategy, ideas on fashion marketing, business building and industry insights to thrive in today’s retail market.
CrossCap Retail Marketing Blog
CrossCap Retail Marketing BlogEditor/Primary Writer: Rahim Kassam, Chief Innovation Officer
Favorite Recent Post: Developing an Omni-Channel Marketing Plan: This is the first post in the series of blogs that talk about developing an omni-channel marketing plan for your retail business.
About the Blog: CrossCap marketing blog covers such topics as omni-channel marketing, marketing strategy, business strategy, enterprise marketing solutions and tools, and it’s especially useful for marketing teams in mid to large-sized companies.
Modern Retail
About the Blog: Modern Retail brings high-quality editorial from knowledgeable, respected authors to all those with an interest in forward-thinking, independent retail. The site holds a library of invaluable content for owners of shops, boutiques, ecommerce stores and all other retail businesses. The key aim of Modern Retail is to help provide useful information and best practice advice to retail decision makers who are looking to grow their business.
Springboard Retail
Springboard RetailEditor/Primary Writer: Petra Geiger
Favorite Recent Post: Store of the Future: Retail Industry Trends 5 Key Shifts: This post talks about what the store of the future looks like and gives retailers some perspective on how they might adapt their retail business in order to thrive despite retail’s changing landscape.
About the Blog: Springboard Retail helps retailers understand the changing retail landscape through the lens of technology, operations, marketing and sales. The aim is to provide helpful resources, tips and insights to help our readers stay competitive and resilient. We all benefit from a thriving retail community and our mission is to help retailers re-imagine retail by using software as the engine to drive innovation.
The Retail Blog
The Retail BlogEditor/Primary Writer: Natalie Bruins
Favorite Recent Post: It’s Less About Channels, More About Journeys: As the digital world becomes commonplace, retailers need to reconsider how they think about channels. The overall customer journey is more important and the digital experience is something which has a constant – and positive – impact on this journey.
About the Blog: K3 Retail are a technology specialists for Microsoft Dynamics 365 supporting 800+ international retail brands. The retail blog brings together news, discussions and an objective view of strategies, trends and developments in retail as and where it happens.
Bottom Line: Best Retail Blogs
We hope that you were able to find a new and interesting blog to serve as your go-to source for all things retail. Our goal is to showcase thought leaders in the industry and provide readers with valuable insights and the latest updates on retail, and each blog featured here does that with their own unique spin and perspective!
Fernando
Really helped me a lot. Thank you all, you are to be congratulated.
Cross border ecommerce solutions
This list helped me a lot, Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Cheers,
Krista
Gayathri
Great Blog Jillian! Also mention ww.hashmybag.com in your future blogs. Its a great app for retailers to increase there sales. They can keep there customers updated on there offers, deals and encourage customers to visit store or purchase through chat. Let me know if you need more information on Hashmybag. I have 60% increase in sales compared to before.
Georganne Bender
Thank you for including our Retail Adventures Blog!