This is a non-exhaustive list of some positive retail developments I caught over the past week, as I tweeted. Please share yours on Twitter using #GoodNewsRetail.

This is a non-exhaustive list of some positive retail developments I caught over the past week, as I tweeted. Please share yours on Twitter using #GoodNewsRetail.

This is a non-exhaustive list of some positive retail developments I caught over the past week, as I tweeted. Please share yours on Twitter using #GoodNewsRetail.

This is a non-exhaustive list of some positive retail developments I caught over the past week, as I tweeted. Please share yours on Twitter using #GoodNewsRetail.

Last week, I volunteered to give an informal talk to a largely non-retail audience about what’s happening in the industry right now. I realized I should jot down some bullet points, and afterwards I put them into sentences. What did I miss?

What’s new and interesting? What looks good? What’s unproven but sounds like a good idea we should keep an eye on? I’ll use #GoodNewsRetail to share these finds on Twitter and Instagram and I hope you will, too.

Nike is doubling down on the 12 markets that will provide 80% of the brand's growth over the next 2.5 years. To many companies, this would mean focusing ad dollars in those markets and maybe sprucing up some area stores. But for Nike, it means more. 

It's painfully easy to think of retailers who aren't doing well right now. Handy trackers even help us keep track of bankruptcies and store closures. But there also are bright spots I love watching. Here are some companies doing well right now and why I'm excited about them.

I read many - probably too many - articles about retail. More than any I’ve seen recently, last week’s The New Yorker article, "Why J. Crew's Vision of Preppy America Failed", nails so much about retail today. 

A few weeks ago, I announced the pre-launch of my new retail business, Box The Party. As the landing page says, I want to help people eliminate Pinterest party fails and create Instagrammable everyday celebrations at home. Despite the chatbot hype, I believe there's an opportunity in human-to-human interaction. So it's no coincidence that Box The Party's minimally viable product - which launched last week - is all via SMS.

I'm not usually one to wallow in the doom and gloom angles of retail. But writing about an evergreen retail topic or recent store visit right now would seem to be ignoring the elephant in the dressing room. The 89,000 U.S. retail workers who have been laid off since October outnumber all of the people employed in the U.S. coal industry

It's tempting to say closing 100 stores won't help Macy's and the company is doomed because there's so much wrong with it. Like the rest of the retail industry, Macy's needs to change with the times. I think closing so many stores is a big step toward that change.

The current issue of Harvard Business Review is one of the best I can remember. In a retail-focused section, "Curing the Addiction to Growth”, the researchers conclude "mature companies should rely on a strategy that focuses on growing revenues of existing stores faster than expenses”. This sounds rational and easy but, while logical, I’ve found it difficult for 3 reasons.

Amidst a world of digital snippets and statistical click bait, ELLE Magazine printed a well-researched longread on retail trends an sentiment in its January 2017 issue. I read it with interest because it's a fresh source talking to a different reader than the mainstream business publications. I wanted to know which themes they're seeing -- and reinforcing.