European Retail Digest articles from December 2005

European Retail Digest archives from December 2005

Editorial.(Editorial)
December 22, 2005... Evaluating the economic, social and environmental impacts of corporate activities has become an increasing preoccupation amongst business, not least retailers. As consumer-facing organisations, not only do retailers concern themselves with...

Wal-Mart experimental stores: environments of scale.(Feature / Corporate Social Responsibility)
December 22, 2005... When a 43-year-old entity equaling the size of the 20th largest country in the world announces a bold initiative in leadership, our times have prepared us to listen with caution. Rather, we can note Wal-Mart's Experimental Environmental Stores...

Consumers and sustainability: poles apart?(1)
December 22, 2005... It is easy to talk about our support for sustainability and ethics in principle--not so easy to turn it into action. When standing in front of a supermarket shelf in different parts of the world, it is still only a minority of consumers who...

Brands that customers trust: interview with Sir Stuart Hampson, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership.(Interview)
December 22, 2005... It has been a quietly successful year for the John Lewis Partnership, despite the challenging time experienced by the retail sector more generally in the UK. Remarkably, the company was ranked both first (Waitrose) and second (John Lewis...

Retailing in Belgium and the Netherlands.
December 22, 2005... In this article Euromonitor International examines the main trends and developments in retailing in Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as the main differences between these two markets. In both countries, the retailing scene has been...

From in-store TV to narrow casting.
December 22, 2005... De Bijenkorf is the upmarket department store of the Netherlands. De Bijenkorf has 12 stores in all major cities of the Netherlands. International brands accounts for more than 70% of sales. Creativity, brand innovation, infotainment and...

From schedule push to reality pull: reality pull prefers retail (1).
December 22, 2005... The Internet is changing the way we organise work. It is shifting the requirement for what we call the 'schedule push' and the hierarchical organisation that it implies, and therefore it is removing the type of control that is conventionally...

Doing well by doing good: some New Year's resolutions for European retailers.(European Political Issues)
December 22, 2005... "Our commitments are not for sale. They cannot be bought. But they enrich both our world and ourselves." This Christmas message wins my prize for the most inspiring of 2005. It reached me from one of my close contacts from the world of...

From re-enchantment to disenchantment: a new logistical deal for the food retailing industry?(News Analysis)
December 22, 2005... The managerial dogma according to which companies placed in a situation of hypercompetition must imperatively propose a maximum level of logistics customer service appears in all research conducted on supply chain management, in Europe and in...

Exploring the benefits obtained in a loyalty programme applied to retailing.(News Analysis)
December 22, 2005... Introduction Loyalty programmes are frequently being questioned despite their amazing results. Criticism of these programmes is hugely contrasted in the academic sphere. For many authors, these programmes take a short-term view and seem to...

Choosing the right loyalty programme.
December 22, 2005... Introduction Loyalty marketing programmes have often been criticised as being ineffective, expensive and myopic because they increase costs for the entire competing circle. This view has been strengthened despite multiple successful...

Loyalty in retail: a strategic success or a management failure (1).
December 22, 2005... Introduction Traditionally, marketing has focused on market share and customer acquisition rather than on retaining existing customers and on building long-lasting relationships with them. More recently, however, market share has been...

Wal-Mart and Carrefour as home-region multinationals.(Viewpoint)(Company overview)
December 22, 2005... Of the approximately 50 retail companies in the Fortune Global 500, only one is a global company, LVMH. In contrast most of these large multinational enterprises (MNEs) are home-region based firms. This Viewpoint article analyses Wal-Mart and...

Online Consumer Psychology: Understanding and Influencing Consumer Behavior in the Virtual World.
December 22, 2005... Online Consumer Psychology: Understanding and Influencing Consumer Behavior in the Virtual World edited by Curtis Haygtvedt, Karen Machleit and Richard Yalch (2005) ISBN 0805851542 This book, published in 2005, is a collection of edited...

IGD Annual Convention, Royal Lancaster Hotel, London, November 2005.
December 22, 2005... In the present competitive and fast moving consumer environment, innovation and management flair are essential for driving growth in the food industry. Those were the main conclusions from the 2005 IGD Annual Convention in London, the theme of...