The Martec Minute

21st March 2024 Welcome to the Martec Minute - All You Can Learn in 60 seconds: Welcome to the Martec Minute. This is a weekly article (excluding holidays) on a topic of interest to those working in the retail and consumer...

10th January 2025 Happy New Year from Martec: As the calendar turns to 2025, we’re not just flipping a page—we’re gearing up for another year of innovation, growth, and...

20th December 2024 Are Your Promotions Driving the Right Customer Behavior?: When planning promotions, where should you focus your efforts for the best results? It all comes down to the “Good, Better, Best”...

13th December 2024 How Efficient Is Your Inventory Turnover?: We analyzed data from 28 UK-based fashion retailers, revealing some fascinating insights: Inventory Turn vs. Annual Sales Most fashion...

6th December 2024 Using forecasting tools to keep up with the fast pace of fashion retail: In an industry where trends shift in the blink of an eye, weekly performance reviews are essential to stay ahead. By Monday morning, your sales,...

29th November 2024 Today is the Day: How Did Black Friday Get Its Name?: It’s Black Friday, the shopping phenomenon that has people waking up at dawn, braving long queues, and scrambling to snag those unbeatable...

22nd November 2024 Are you Focusing on the Customers who Truly Matter?: Did you know that the top 30% of your customers often account for 77% of your sales? While this example comes from grocery retail, it’s...

15th November 2024 5 Easy (But Overlooked) Ways to Reduce Safety Stock in Retail: Maintaining optimal safety stock levels is crucial for balancing customer satisfaction with cost efficiency. Drawing from our extensive experience...

8th November 2024 Boost Your Sales with the "Good, Better, Best" Assortment Strategy: Crafting the ideal product assortment requires a strategic balance of various factors. A proven approach is the "Good, Better, Best"...

1st November 2024 Maximizing Retail Allocation & Replenishment: 5 Tips for Staying Ahead: Allocation and replenishment are crucial to meeting customer demand and avoiding stockouts—there’s still a lot you can do to optimize...

25th October 2024 Why Nearshoring and Reshoring are on the rise?: The world of manufacturing is changing. Amongst others, consumer packaged goods companies and retailers are starting to bring production back...

18th October 2024 Data-Driven Talent Planning & Personalized Training: Let's see how data and personalized training can take your talent strategy to the next level! The foundation of a successful talent plan...

11th October 2024 Planning Your Future Talent Needs: As a retailer, have you ever found yourself scrambling to fill key roles due to unexpected turnover? It's a common challenge, but one that...

4th October 2024 Tackling Social Commerce Challenges in Retail: Last week, we explored how social commerce is taking the retail world by storm, making it easier than ever to shop with just a few taps. But...

27th September 2024 Sales Growth through Social Media: My colleague was just scrolling through Facebook the other day, and it hit me—shopping has become so effortless on social media. From...

13th September 2024 The Marketplace Revolution is Here: Marketplaces have taken the e-commerce world by storm, and consumer goods companies and retailers are joining the revolution. Did you know that...

6th September 2024 Eye Level is Buy Level: Making life easy for shoppers is one of the most effective ways to encourage sales and grow store gross profit. Most shoppers will often not...

30th August 2024 The Power of Planning & Forecasting in Retail: "No plan survives first contact with the enemy," said military strategist Helmuth von Moltke. So why bother planning at all? Here's...

23rd August 2024 Omni-Channel Retail Strategies: In today's digital age, you might think online shopping dominates. But here's a revelation that challenges this assumption: Up to...

16th August 2024 Real-Time Isn’t Always Necessary: Rethink Your Retail Needs: We often hear about the "need" to migrate to real-time processes for better business outcomes. But is real-time always the best move?...

12th August 2024 The Power of Inspiration to Drive In-Store Sales: While many predicted the demise of physical stores in the face of e-commerce, a fascinating trend is emerging post-pandemic: stores are making...

2nd August 2024 Loyalty Programs: Retention vs True Customer Loyalty: In the world of retail, we have long celebrated the power of loyalty programs. But it's time we face an uncomfortable truth: these programs...

26th July 2024 Consumer Goods Companies - Do You Want To Grow Your Retail Business ?: Are your Consumer Goods Account Managers (AMs) struggling to close deals with retail buyers? Let's uncover the hidden barriers: Positioning...

19th July 2024 Will Supply Chain Challenges Worsen Over Time ?: Recent news paints a bleaker picture for supply chains. This week the Houthi rebels released a video of a ship being hit in the Red Sea again...

12th July 2024 Optimizing Selling Space for New Retail Stores: Optimizing selling space deployment is especially critical in new stores to get them off to a good start, but it’s more difficult because...

5th July 2024 Upskilling The Business for Better Merchandising Decisions: Let’s imagine you are a retail merchandiser. Your buyer is introducing a new flavoured pink gin. Calculate the quantity the buyer needs...

28th June 2024 If in Doubt, Go Back to Basics: My wife and I spent some time in a store of a well-known brand. My wife found two dresses that she really liked. The store stock included the...

21st June 2024 Customer Segmentation: Essential for Retail Success: Very few retailers understand how to fully use customer segmentation to improve trading. Martec recommends lifestyle segmentation over demographic...

14th June 2024 Generative AI - a Costly Process?: I read two articles recently that are eye opening. If you are interested in AI and how it is progressing, you should be aware of these. You...

7th June 2024 All Retail Management Should Know This: A recent white paper from Robling gave some very good advice on how to improve retail management in a recession, it’s worth a read. However,...

31st May 2024 Are Retailers Getting the Customer Service Message?: Several studies published recently by organisations like RSR (Retail Systems Research) and the IGD (Institute of Grocery Distribution) highlight...

24th May 2024 Sourcing Diversification: In a recent survey, 53% of retailers were looking at expanding their supplier base to mitigate risks associated with supply chain disruption....

17th May 2024 AI & Investment Priorities in Retail and Consumer Goods: A recent survey of retailers and consumer goods companies by Relex, and reported by Chain Store Age this April, showed 57% of these companies...

13th May 2024 AI in Retail: Trends, Challenges & Applications: AI is increasingly deployed in the retail industry in 8 main areas, namely: Personalized marketing Customer service Inventory management Dynamic...

3rd May 2024 Upskill People to Drive Selling Space Productivity: The cost of selling space, also known as occupancy cost, is a major cost factor in retailing, second only to people costs in most companies....

26th April 2024 Optimizing Selling Space: Boost Retail Profits: Selling space is one of the most expensive assets retailers have after payroll. Hence it is vital to optimize space productivity as much as...

19th April 2024 Disaster Recovery - Think Wider!: In 2019 economic losses from 409 natural disasters exceeded $232 billion. But it isn’t just natural disasters that we have to worry about....

12th April 2024 Omni-Channel Retailing Scores Higher Than Online Only Retailing: A recent US study by ICSC called The Halo Effect III examined store and online sales for 69 retailers and 2,103 individual stores. The findings...

5th April 2024 Maximizing Sales: The Formula for Retail Growth: There is a tried and tested formula for planning store sales. Here’s Martec’s extended version to include online. Sales =...

29th March 2024 Advanced Payment Systems Revolutionizing Retail Transactions: Payment systems are advancing faster in Europe than the US. Contactless payment is more widely adopted in Europe, as is advances in open banking....

22nd March 2024 E-Commerce Fulfillment Trends: Insights from IHL & RIS: Some interesting E-Commerce statistics from a recent survey by IHL Consulting and RIS News. The chart shows the share of retail sales taken by...

15th March 2024 Direct to Consumer Companies Opening Stores: A recent US study by ICSC called The Halo Effect III examined store and online sales for 69 retailers and 2,103 individual stores. The findings...

8th March 2024 Imports Via the Panama and Suez Canals Face More Trouble: The risk to inventory availability due to shipping problems continues to be challenging. Historically, the Panama Canal averaged 38 ship transits...

3rd March 2024 Computer Vision Is Coming of Age: Computer Vision is coming of age thanks to AI. There are applications now to detect attempted thefts in store. AI applications can alert the...

23rd February 2024 Challenges for Retailers Selling to Younger Consumers: There are increasingly mixed views about self-checkout in stores. Many retailers are rolling out more self-checkout, but some are taking them...

9th February 2024 Return Fraud Keeps Growing: NRF also released data on returns fraud from a survey by Apriss retail. Key types of return fraud are: - Returns of used, non-defective merchandising,...

2nd February 2024 More on Returns: NRF has estimated that returns from US online sales totalled $247bn in 2023, 17.6% of total online orders. Total returns across all channels...

26th January 2024 What Keeps CEO's Up At Night: A survey of 1200 global executives including 630 CEOs summarised recently by Chain Store Age showed most US CEOs are worried about recession...

26th January 2024 The Height of Madness: A recent survey published by IDC and sponsored by Sensomatic, said that 53% of European consumers surveyed would choose to shop elsewhere, if...

17th January 2024 Estimating Demand for Something You Have Never Sold: When bringing in new items, how can you improve your estimate of demand for purchasing? When you create a new product in your system, define...

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The Martec Minute

Welcome to the Martec Minute - All You Can Learn in 60 seconds

Happy New Year from Martec

Are Your Promotions Driving the Right Customer Behavior?

How Efficient Is Your Inventory Turnover?

Using forecasting tools to keep up with the fast pace of fashion retail

Today is the Day: How Did Black Friday Get Its Name?

Are you Focusing on the Customers who Truly Matter?

5 Easy (But Overlooked) Ways to Reduce Safety Stock in Retail

Boost Your Sales with the "Good, Better, Best" Assortment Strategy

Maximizing Retail Allocation & Replenishment: 5 Tips for Staying Ahead

Why Nearshoring and Reshoring are on the rise?

Data-Driven Talent Planning & Personalized Training

Planning Your Future Talent Needs

Tackling Social Commerce Challenges in Retail

Sales Growth through Social Media

The Marketplace Revolution is Here

Eye Level is Buy Level

The Power of Planning & Forecasting in Retail

Omni-Channel Retail Strategies

Real-Time Isn’t Always Necessary: Rethink Your Retail Needs

The Power of Inspiration to Drive In-Store Sales

Loyalty Programs: Retention vs True Customer Loyalty

Consumer Goods Companies - Do You Want To Grow Your Retail Business ?

Will Supply Chain Challenges Worsen Over Time ?

Optimizing Selling Space for New Retail Stores

Upskilling The Business for Better Merchandising Decisions

If in Doubt, Go Back to Basics

Customer Segmentation: Essential for Retail Success

Generative AI - a Costly Process?

All Retail Management Should Know This

Are Retailers Getting the Customer Service Message?

Sourcing Diversification

AI & Investment Priorities in Retail and Consumer Goods

AI in Retail: Trends, Challenges & Applications

Upskill People to Drive Selling Space Productivity

Optimizing Selling Space: Boost Retail Profits

Disaster Recovery - Think Wider!

Omni-Channel Retailing Scores Higher Than Online Only Retailing

Maximizing Sales: The Formula for Retail Growth

Advanced Payment Systems Revolutionizing Retail Transactions

E-Commerce Fulfillment Trends: Insights from IHL & RIS

Direct to Consumer Companies Opening Stores

Imports Via the Panama and Suez Canals Face More Trouble

Computer Vision Is Coming of Age

Challenges for Retailers Selling to Younger Consumers

Return Fraud Keeps Growing

More on Returns

What Keeps CEO's Up At Night

The Height of Madness

Estimating Demand for Something You Have Never Sold