Opening a second store: the checklist before you sign a lease
A pre-lease checklist for retailers about to open location number two, covering the cash, people and systems that usually break first.
Brick-and-mortar Trends
Trends in physical retail including store formats, customer experience, and omnichannel strategies.
Store KPIs worth tracking weekly: conversion, UPT and sales per hour
The short list of store metrics that actually explain performance, how to calculate each one and what a good number looks like.
How to build a store labor schedule that survives peak season
How to schedule store staff from real traffic data so peak weeks are covered without burning payroll in the quiet hours.
World Cup fuels US retail’s best spending month in four years: hosts win
The 2026 FIFA World Cup helped push US consumer spending to its strongest June in more than four years. Host cities and their retailers captured the bulk of the gains, led by international visitors.
Why Best Buy’s margin story is shifting to marketplace and ads: 3 signals
Three recent signals point to Best Buy making Best Buy Ads and its Marketplace the centerpiece of its holiday 2026 margin story. The verdict is checkable at the Q3 FY27 print in late November 2026 and the holiday Q4 print in early 2027.
Clienteling in 2026: turning store associates into a channel
Clienteling turns store associates into a measurable sales channel. Here is the 2026 stack, comp model, metrics and attribution that make it pay off.
Store layout science: how floor flow lifts basket size
Floor flow, not price, sets the ceiling on basket size. A retail breakdown of decompression zones, the right-turn bias, adjacency, and the metrics that make layout testable.
Tools and vendors for brick-and-mortar in 2026
Retail deep dive: Tools and vendors for brick-and-mortar in 2026.
How small retailers should choose a location
Retail deep dive: How small retailers should choose a location.
Theft, shrink and loss prevention without scaring shoppers
Retail deep dive: Theft, shrink and loss prevention without scaring shoppers.