February 19, 2015 We’ve all done it. Asked a question of a sales clerk only to have them point to the sign in front of us that has the answer we were looking for. That’s because we were on autopilot and since there was someone right there that we could ask, our brain stopped trying […]
Four Days of Conference Sessions and Expo Buying from Over 200 Select Vendors for Nonprofit and Independent Retailers The Museum Store Association (MSA) will hold its annual Retail Conference & Expo April 17-20, 2015 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn. The 2015 MSA Retail Conference & Expo offers four days of dynamic learning […]
It is about making a profit and producing that ever-elusive, positive net income! Every retailer struggles with this every day—how to attain it and how to increase it. It takes a strong retail team to build the foundation and put all of the pieces together to get there. Do you have the right fixtures and […]
A customer wanders in to a museum’s retail store. He is inspired by the art exhibition he just visited and wants to take something home to commemorate his experience. Enjoying the ambient music as he shops, he eventually purchases a magnet featuring a photo of the artist, a coffee cup with an image of one […]
My apologies to Andy Williams. No, not that time. You are now off and running in the great holiday race. Shelves are stocked, everything is decorated and business is booming. This is about about the next most wonderful time of the year: Physical Inventory. The key to a successful Physical Inventory (PI) is organization. I […]
December 5, 2014 As Christmas approaches, something else is close – the day after Christmas. And that means bargain hunters, crowded stores, long lines and after Christmas returns. You know the drill, you smile as you unlock the front door and greet the happy customers who will visit you today. Then reality hits you, an […]
November 21, 2014 Everyone loves to know what the latest trends are—whether it’s in fashion, color, home décor, food, or technology. So why not create a trend wall in your gift shop and feature some of the products that you sell?
If you are a retailer you know that there is no single way to increase sales from male museum visitors. As a retailer you have tried different things to get men to buy but have not found a consistent solution. This dilemma can be understood potentially solved by looking back to our ancestral roots: men […]
The Chazen Museum of Art, located on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, underwent a major expansion and remodel project that opened in Fall 2011. Unfortunately, while the store was given a bigger space, it continued to operate in the red and was not able to find its voice or leverage the added media attention or […]
Did you know there’s an association for associations? I attended the 2014 American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) annual meeting in Nashville in August. Senior managers of associations gathered from all over the world to discuss trends that affect professional associations and trade organizations and were the topic of conversations and sessions. While many of […]
