Local Business - Practical Ecommerce

How AI Shopping Impacts Main Street Retail

Armando Roggio — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 09:00:20 +0000

AI agents cannot replicate the personal recognition and service of local merchants.

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Tattoo Biz Suits Danish Entrepreneur

Eric Bandholz — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 13:15:27 +0000

Rasmus Cort is co-owner of five tattoo shops and a provider of tattoo skincare products.

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Charts: U.S. Retail Trends July 2023

Adel Boukarroum — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 12:47:50 +0000

The U.S. Census Bureau surveys 1.2 million businesses every two weeks to assess the state of the economy and expectations of owners and managers.

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13 Pop-up Shops from Brands, for Inspiration

Sig Ueland — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 14:54:25 +0000

Pop-up shops offer online brands the opportunity to engage with consumers, solicit feedback, and test new products and services.

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Retail Apocalypse Reversal?

Armando Roggio — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 14:13:44 +0000

Physical retail stores face challenges amid ecommerce, supply chain issues, and labor shortages. A Shopify-like approach for brick-and-mortar businesses could be the answer.

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Charts: Online Grocery Delivery Trends

Adel Boukarroum — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 13:12:30 +0000

The pandemic-driven shift to online grocery pickup is not declining. That's according to two recent surveys. We explain in four charts.

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Should Ecommerce Brands Sell via Dealers?

Armando Roggio — Sun, 02 Oct 2022 12:38:04 +0000

A brick-and-mortar dealer network could help online businesses. We explain the pros and cons, and how to get started.

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22 Top Local Business Directories

Sig Ueland — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 12:45:50 +0000

Claiming your company's profile on local business directories is an easy way to increase awareness, offer info on your products and services, create opportunities for positive reviews, and improve your search rankings. Best of all, the listings are free. Here is a list of local directory sites.

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Charts: Physical Retail to Transform Layout, Purpose

Adel Boukarroum — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 12:23:56 +0000

The shift to online buying could prompt physical retail stores worldwide to commit a third of their space for online fulfillment. That's according to Edge by Ascential, a U.K.-based research and advisory firm.

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What if 80,000 Brick-and-mortar Stores Closed?

Armando Roggio — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 09:00:34 +0000

A financial services firm has predicted that 80,000 or more physical store locations in the United States are likely to close in the next five years, reducing the total number of American retail outlets by approximately 10 percent. But what does that mean?

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Bike Retailer Solves a Pandemic-driven Problem

Armando Roggio — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 13:51:27 +0000

Lots of consumers wanted to get outside when the pandemic hit last year. Among the beneficiaries was Erik's Bike Shop, a Minnesota-based retailer, which experienced a massive increase in web traffic and customer service requests — phone calls, emails, and chats. The staff was overwhelmed.

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Mall Owners Become Retailers Amidst the Pandemic

Marcia Kaplan — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 13:07:12 +0000

The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent store closures have brought new momentum to the decline of brick-and-mortar retailing, especially malls. More than 50 percent of the department stores that anchor malls in the U.S. will permanently close by the end of 2021, according to real estate investment firm Green Street Advisors.

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The First Steps in Adding Ecommerce to a Brick-and-mortar Store

Armando Roggio — Sun, 02 Aug 2020 13:00:50 +0000

Brick-and-mortar retail businesses are turning toward ecommerce to generate revenue — online and click-and-collect. As they make this digital transformation, those merchants will likely have questions about ecommerce platforms, themes, and design. While all of these are important, a company's focus should be on products and marketing first, in my experience.

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Bankruptcies, Layoffs Deplete the Retail Industry

Marcia Kaplan — Thu, 14 May 2020 13:20:39 +0000

At the beginning of 2020 several brick-and-mortar chain retailers were struggling, trying to restructure debt or find new lenders while dealing with plummeting revenues. The Covid-19 pandemic has closed stores and effectively made those efforts pointless.

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Covid-19 Is an Opportunity for Some Local Merchants

Armando Roggio — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 08:00:19 +0000

The coronavirus pandemic is bad news. It has shut down a significant portion of the world's economy and killed far too many people. If, however, you're willing to hunt for a silver lining, the shutdowns and social distancing could be an opportunity for some brick-and-mortar companies to finally get online.

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Physical Store Closures Hit a New High in 2019

Marcia Kaplan — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 13:48:06 +0000

2019 was not a good year for brick-and-mortar stores. As of November 1, U.S. retail store closures reached 9,302, a 59 percent increase over 2018 according to Coresight Research. The biggest contributor was Payless ShoeSource, which declared bankruptcy and closed all of its 2,100 stores.

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3 Lessons from Running Pop-up Stores

Charles Nicholls — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 16:10:47 +0000

Pop-up stores are a familiar sight in malls and events, but adding a digital component is relatively new. I've just completed a series of pop-up experiences for my company and for merchant brands. In this post, I'll share my lessons and observations.

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Physical Stores Can Bolster Online Sales, for a Price

Alex Berg — Tue, 21 May 2019 13:49:46 +0000

Opening a physical store was an anathema for early-day, pure-play ecommerce merchants. Why take on the financial burden of leases, construction costs, and staff? But the ecommerce landscape has changed.

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Is Experiential Retail Working?

Marcia Kaplan — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 14:16:54 +0000

Looking to rejuvenate their stores and slow the wave of closings, many retailers and mall operators have embraced experiential retailing — shifting from selling products to providing an “experience” that sometimes does not include selling anything.

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The Keys to ‘Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store’

Alex Berg — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 14:10:35 +0000

The emergence of buying online and picking up in store, as well as in-store returns for online purchases, is driving consumer shopping expectations. But less than half of physical retailers offer these capabilities. What follows are key factors in implementing BOPIS.

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Ecommerce Merchants Embrace Clicks-to-bricks

Marcia Kaplan — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 14:08:00 +0000

Digitally native businesses are opening physical stores at a brisk pace, embracing the "clicks to bricks" movement. This trend shows that physical stores are not dead, though the big-box mall model may not be the blueprint for the future.

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5 Ways Local Brick-and-mortar Retailers Can Earn More Profit in 2019

Armando Roggio — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 18:46:11 +0000

Profit might be the most important performance indicator for retail businesses. What follows are five suggestions to earn more profit for a local, brick-and-mortar retailer in the coming year.
1. Sell ...

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Offline Sales Tips for Online Merchants

Curtis McHale — Thu, 10 May 2018 18:16:12 +0000

Many brick-and-mortar stores have found success in migrating online. But the trend has reversed somewhat. Pure-play ecommerce companies are finding success with physical stores. We addressed the topic last month,

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Ecommerce Merchants Embrace Brick-and-mortar

Marcia Kaplan — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 12:17:20 +0000

With all the talk of a “retail apocalypse,” you might wonder why any merchant would want to open a brick-and-mortar store. Yet several successful ecommerce companies are now operating physical ...

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SEO: Store Locators Good for Bots, Good for Shoppers

Jill Kocher Brown — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 13:39:35 +0000

If you have more than one physical location, in addition to your ecommerce site, you need a store locator. Slapping all your store addresses on a single web page and calling it done doesn’t cut it for shoppers or for natural search performance. An optimal store locator should be searchable for your customers and also crawlable for the search engines.

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Costco Finally Embraces Ecommerce

Marcia Kaplan — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 13:16:28 +0000

While Walmart, Amazon, Kroger, and Albertson's compete for online supremacy in groceries and household goods, Costco has until recently remained aloof, firmly committed to serving customers at its physical stores. The company, which operates on a membership basis, has 49.9 million member households.

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2017 Ecommerce Round-up: 16 Percent Growth; ’Retail Apocalypse’?

Marcia Kaplan — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 13:46:20 +0000

2017 was supposedly the year ecommerce pummeled the brick-and-mortar retail sector, creating what analysts called a “retail apocalypse.” Yet, according to research firm Statista, ecommerce contributed only 9.1 percent to total retail sales in the United States and 10.1 percent globally. In other words, there is room for much ecommerce growth. However physical stores will fight back by luring customers with new approaches.

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4 Marketing Lessons from Opening a Brick-and-mortar Store

Armando Roggio — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 13:48:53 +0000

Lessons learned from opening a brick-and-mortar retail store may apply to online merchants, providing insights about promoting products, driving sales, and engaging shoppers.
On November 9 through 11, 2017, I helped ...

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Can Experiential Retailing Help Brick-and-mortar Stores?

Marcia Kaplan — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 10:11:36 +0000

The theory behind experiential retailing is that people are bored with buying tangible goods; what they really crave is experiences. When shoppers really need things, they can buy them online ...

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5 Ways Brick-and-mortar Retailers Can Get Started in Ecommerce

Armando Roggio — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 12:44:31 +0000

In spite of what you may have heard, not every retailer is selling online, not every physical store is closing, and some successful brick-and-mortar shops have real concerns about getting ...

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