John’s Blog

One of the major topics on workshops these days is online shopping and its value in retailing. Views in audiences are varied and some retailers think online will never effect them while others believe it is part of the future The following Australian Sensis report makes interesting reading: Men are the big spenders. – Basically […]

If you have attended a retail of business conference over the last year, I suspect at least one speaker has addressed the need to get to know the Millennial shopper. I am one of those presenters that has been promoting the need to respond to a new consumer. 2017 is the year when the Millennial

One of our newsletter readers in the UK, Neil Grant, sent me this information from The Guardian on female shoppers and how to attract them to your business. Thanks Neil this is worth reading: Win over women, and the men will follow, with women controlling 85% of purchasing decisions, focusing your marketing efforts on them will pay

A book that is about to be a launched that will be of interest to a number of our readers is “The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion” by Jenny Peterson. This will be an inspiring book and a book that many of you will want to read. Synopsis THE BOOK IN 19 WORDS: A CANCER PATIENT DISCOVERS THAT

Retailing is constantly changing and that is part of the fun of being involved in the sector. Imagine dropping in to your local fashion store for a coffee and snack. That is now becoming more of a trend. In London you can enjoy a coffee or champagne in Regents Street at the Burberry all-day cafe in

In August I spent a week working with a number of clients in Denmark as well as travelling for two days with the International Garden Centre Congress. There were many highlights. One store that really caught my eye was Bolia, a Danish lifestyle store. Their merchandising was some of the most imaginative I have seen

The big story this month is from my wife. In 2010, Linda walked the 1000 kilometre Bibbulmun Track from Albany to Perth in Western Australia. This is the second longest walking track in the world after the Appalachian Trail in the USA. She did this solo over two months. Linda’s new book Grandy’s Long Walk, is

Many years ago I was travelling through South Africa and stopped at a small town where I noticed they had a small plant nursery. I went to look at what they were doing and was greeted by the plant manager. To him, I was another customer. As we walked though the nursery he picked a

The World Expo in Milan opened in early May 2015 . The focus of the expo is food and the advancement of food technology around the world, the theme being “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. One of the features of the Expo was a supermarket of the future built by the Italian supermarket retailer

In February 2000 Stephen Kaufer, Langley Steinart and a few friends sat in an office in the USA and invented a website that they could use to swap travel reviews. Fourteen years latter it was voted the most trusted travel website in the world. Plus it owned 24 other travel branded sites including “booking buddy”,