If you’re the Clash, you spend a lot of time wondering should you stay? Or should you go? It’s what you do. If you’re me, you spend a lot of time reading about the retail industry. It’s what you do.
Given that I’ve spent so much time trawling the web for great retail reads, I’m in a good position to save you some time and give you a definitive list of the retail blogs you absolutely need to check out. That is, if you really need to read anything besides Capterra’s retail blog.
Please note: these are in no particular order. I love all these blogs equally and for different reasons.
1. Medallion Retail
Written by Bradley Daves, Medallion Retail focuses on retail marketing. Bradley covers everything you could want to know about retail marketing, from proper signage usage to important retail marketing conferences, in easy-to-read bite-size posts. You can’t fail to walk away from one of Bradley’s posts with simple-to-implement knowledge. My favorite part about this blog though, is Bradley’s stylistic creativity. Quite a few of his posts are narrative poetry, which makes them deeply compelling, like his recent The Old Man and the Sears – An Ode to Father.
2. Vend Blog
Headed up by retail industry and point-of-sale software expert, Francesca Nicasio, Vend is a phenomenal blog for retail managers and store owners, in particular, to follow. Vend focuses on taking serious issues that retailers face and providing solutions.
A lot of these issues are daily struggles for retailers, like, what questions a retailer should be asking before opening new locations or what you should do if a big name retailer moves to town. But they don’t shy away from big, hard hitting industry issues that affect retailers. One of my favorite pieces is on how traditional apparel retailers can compete with fast fashion. These actionable posts make Vend the perfect source of information for anyone looking for solutions to their store’s problems.
Bonus: Vend has a weekly newsletter that I look forward to receiving every Friday. They gather the best retail articles written that week from around the web and introduce you to a different expert in the space each week. Totally worth signing up for.
3. Shopify Blog
Shopify has one of the most famous and well-respected blogs in the eCommerce space. They post more-or-less daily with all kinds of insanely informative articles. Many of the articles are geared towards helping people start and manage their small eCommerce businesses (e.g. “How to Find Time to Build Your eCommerce Empire While Working a 9 to 5”). They frequently write on larger eCommerce industry topics, though, like Pinterest’s buyable pins.
What makes Shopify’s blog really special, though, besides being a manual for an eCom entrepreneur, is the deeply researched pieces they release fairly regularly. These articles provide incredible insight into issues that affect the retail industry at large and are always great learning moments. My favorite? “Why All Sales Signs are Red: The Science of Color in Retail.”
4. Retail Customer Experience
Retail Customer Experience is an important blog because – well, it’s in the title. Retail Customer Experience focuses on the customer’s experience of retail, and what retailers can do to shape that. They don’t just provide tip posts, though. Retail Customer Experience most frequently looks at how real stores and new technologies are affecting customers’ experiences and what you can learn from them.
5. The Retail Blogger
The Retail Blogger is blog that focuses on covering the technology that powers the retail industry. They cover everything from mobile point of sale technology to the use of augmented reality in retail. This blog provides wonderful, creative ideas for how retailers can use and implement technology to provide better experiences for their customers.
6. The Retail Doctor’s Blog
Bob Phibbs, the man behind the blog, is a sales expert who seeks to help struggling retail businesses revamp their sales teams. His blog is devoted to this cause and provides seriously helpful articles like “9 Secrets to Effectively Managing Retail Employees” and “How to Correct the 5 Biggest Retail Sales Training Turnoffs for Customers.” As a former retail seller who was excellent at her job, I can assure you, Bob’s tips WORK. If you need to turn your sales team around, or revamp your sales training program, Bob’s blog is the blog for you. And if his blog isn’t enough – he’ll come train you himself.
7. National Retail Federation Blog (NRF)
The NRF is a phenomenal news source for all things retail. They keep the retail world up to date on what’s happening in the political, economic, and scientific spheres that will affect retailers. They also follow and report on trends within the retail industry itself.
8. Retail Design Blog
This is the blog to come to when you need inspiration for the layout and design of your store. Multiple articles per day are posted that showcase beautiful, innovative retail spaces, product designs, and other layouts from around the world. These posts are filled with pictures and explanations to help get your own creative juices flowing.
9. RetailWire
RetailWire is another retail news site. In addition to just reporting on the news that affects the retail industry, RetailWire also has a section of business tips for retail businesses based off recent news events, and a section of editorials on the news that affects retailers. As well, they send out a daily newsletter filled with everything you need to know that day about the industry.
Additions?
Those are my 9 daily must-reads. Do you enjoy these blogs? What are your must-reads?
Header by Abby Kahler
The post The Top 9 Retail Blogs You Need to Be Following appeared first on Capterra Blog.