Expertise in content marketing and business journalism. Three decades of experience covering food, fintech, transportation, banking/finance, marketing, retailing, and personal finance.
Reverse logistics is retailers' next challenge amid the supply chain crisis
A shortage of drivers and warehouse workers is about to collide with an historic level of returns, posing new challenges for retailers in reverse logistics.
Reverse logistics—the process of returning goods to sellers or manufacturers for resale or disposal—is already a complicated business. But things are about to get worse, according to transportation and logistics experts who warn that a supply chain already in crisis is unprepared for a coming surge in holiday returns.
“With the buying tre...
Station wagon vacations: Looking at the near future of the travel industry
If you were in New York City this past weekend, you may have caught a glimpse of the near future of the travel industry: the station-wagon vacation.
Temperatures in NYC hit 80 degrees. And New Yorkers, who have endured weeks of stay-at-home orders, ventured outdoors by the thousands. The parks, frankly, were ridiculous. There were too many people gathering too close together and taking too few precautions.
But the streets of lower Manhattan were glorious. And it was there you could see the ne...
Accrue Savings puts a twist on alternative payments by promoting savings, not debt
Alternative payments are booming, as new entrants crowd the checkout process with ways to pay. But Michael Hershfield, founder and CEO of Accrue Savings, thinks he’s found a way to rise above the fray by offering shoppers a new way to save for a purchase, well before they reach checkout.
“We all know the last 30 years have been filled with credit innovation,” Hershfield says. “But in savings, there has been almost no innovation. Why shouldn’t a retailer provide a diversity of payment options ...
Moms Rule Retail
By Paul Conley, Content Marketing Director, The NPD Group
Call her Mom. Or call her Ma. Or even call her Mommie Dearest. She’s the most influential character in most of our lives.
The woman with young kids at home is also the most influential shopper in dozens of categories.
If you make or sell clothes, beauty supplies, food, toys, appliances, shoes, or most anything else, you need mothers’ lov...
Four things you should know about ag drones
One of the great misconceptions of farmers is that when they all get together, conversation is dominated by talk of the weather.
Sure, farmers talk about the weather. They talk about it plenty. But that's because their livelihood depends on it.
What farmers really want to talk about it is whether or not to buy a drone.
The farm belt is positively awash in conversations about ag drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) similar to ones used by hobbyists, wanna-be pilots, and tourists who damage ...
SMS marketing proves its worth in reaching younger shoppers
When the pandemic hit, Brian Greenspan realized he needed to change his marketing mix.
Greenspan is the chief operating officer of Inmod, a web-only retailer of modern furniture and home décor. Furniture was a great business in the era of lockdowns and working from home. But it was also a great time for its giant competitors, such as Macy’s Inc. and The Home Depot Inc., who were advertising heavily and driving up ad rates. Greenspan needed a way to break through and capture shoppers’ attentio...
Harley-Davidson's Road Trip to Kansas City
When motorcycle builder Harley-Davidson Inc. announced late in 1995 that Kansas City, Mo., was one of five candidates for its new $100-million manufacturing facility, area officials had to scramble. Harley wanted a meeting, and there were only a few days to prepare.
In a late-night brainstorming session, development staffers decided to produce a videotape starring a local public-relations executive, Dick Grove, a burly, bearded biker and Harley aficionado.
According to Robert Marcusse, presid...
Can the Minimalism movement help you get better at money?
Can the Minimalism movement help you get better at ...
The Eight Wonders of the Collaboration World
This entertaining and inspiring whitepaper by B2B journalist and consultant Paul Conley will forever change the way you think about online collaboration.
The Man Behind China's Unlikely Gold at NYIOOC
An agronomic engineer from Argentina convinces a Chinese company to improve product quality and strikes gold at the world's most prestigious olive oil competition.
There were plenty of surprises at the 2017 New York International Olive Oil Competition — but few caused quite as much of a stir as the Gold Award won by a Chinese producer.
You can’t imagine how happy they are. These guys want to leave a mark in the industry.
Olive oil production is still in its infancy in China. And no producer h...
What Makes a Millennial Spend Big?
Thus, it’s common for people in early adulthood to be frugal. When there’s little money to spend, it’s necessary to spend wisely. But today’s young adult—the millennials, or Gen Y—have been forced to behave in exceptionally frugal ways. Having come of age in the great recession, often saddled with high levels of student loan debt, and witness to the disappearance of their elders’ savings, millennials are not an acquisitive bunch. Unlike when the two generations that preceded them (boomers an...
CHICAGO TERMINAL OPERATOR STUDIES MOVE
Federal Marine Terminals, one of the largest facilities at Chicago's port, may soon set sail for rival Burns International Harbor in Portage, Ind.
Clear the path to retail’s future
It wasn’t all that long ago when the future of retail was clear. That’s because analysts, executives, academics, and everyone else had grown enchanted by two intriguing ideas about millennials:
these young adults had a far stronger desire for convenience when shopping than did older adults. This, obviously, helped explain the surge in ecommerce.
millennials also demonstrated a stronger interest in “experiences” than in “things.” This, predictably, led to the embrace of “experiential retail” b...
Why Is So Much Content Aggregation Still So Sleazy?
This far along in the Web journalism era, you'd think professional journalists would have reached some agreement on what content aggregation looks like. But we haven't.
Rather, otherwise reputable publications seem to throw their professionalism, if not their ethics, to the side when it comes time to write about what has already reported. Journalists who would never dream of plagiarizing someone else's work when writing original material, think nothing of plagiarizing when writing about someo...
Treasuries Are the Safest Investment
U.S. Treasuries are securities that are issued by the United States government that which allow it to raise money to help cover the costs of operations and fund programs. These Treasuries are sold to investors, who are generally looking for the safest, lowest-risk investment available.
Treasuries come in the form of Treasury bills (T-bills), notes (T-notes), and bonds (T-bonds). T-bills are securities that have a short maturity span of up to a year. The maturity rate of T-notes ranges from t...