John’s Blog

Many of you will be aware that I believe this is the next big retail initiative, it will combine retailing and tourism. At present I am writing a book on Culinary Tourism which I hope to get published next year. In the meantime I am noticing a number of initiatives taking place. I was impressed […]

While I was at the Newsagent Conference in the UK where I was the keynote speaker I was fascinated by some research presented by John Kenny of the Today Group. The questions asked of retailers were: What do shoppers do when they are unable to find a product?” Retailers response – 55% come and ask,

Over the last few months I have been promoting Culinary Tourism as one of the big trends. I recently spoke at the FACET (Forum Advocating Cultural and Ecotourism) Culinary Journeys Conference in Manjimup in Western Australia and was interviewed by the ABC National Radio along with Barry Green (Boronia Farm) about Culinary Tourism for the

It has been a busy few weeks for me, I actually visited 8 countries in five weeks, hence I was not sure what day or time of day it was. I managed to be in Wales for the most perfect weeks weather. I led a New Vision workshop for retail farmers from the UK and

What has John been up to this month? He was the keynote speaker at the UK newsagents conference, Local Shop Summit which was held in Torquay on the 11th of June. The theme was “Get Local Right”. [The Local Shop Summit is an Independent-only conference that provides actionable advice from leading suppliers as well as

As a retailer you need to know how your customer service stacks up and you want to know straight away. With the arrival of the internet and social media, often, the local community knows before you do. I was therefore intrigued to see a new Phone App be developed in West Australia. Take5Refresh is a

On my journey North I stopped over in Dubai and stayed with Danny Powell who is a client and the manager of Dubai Garden Centre. In my conference presentations I have been promoting the fact that in today’s world garden centres need to excel at plants and gardening, but also need extra categories. Dubai Garden

Last year at the Irish conference I mentioned a Facebook promotion that garden centres had developed in Australia. The Irish industry took this idea on board and this spring launched a campaign “Spread a Little Happiness”. They distributed plants in the community and customers had to give the plant a girls name and register them

In conference presentations I talk about the fact that in the next five years we will see the biggest changes in our lifetime. Remember 2002? Basically only ten years ago…look at what has changed in internet use, and how it affects our marketing. in 2002 we had 9.1% of the global population using the internet…now

The Irish Retail Excellence conference was excellent and it was great to meet old and new friends. The retailer who is leading the way in Ireland is, in my opinion, Easons. Connor Whelan and the team are doing a great job. Check their store out on Google pictures. I was intrigued with some merchandising ideas.