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  • Collaborative Technology and Retail

    Collaborative technology remains vital to the performance of retail leaders. This category of innovation, which includes social media, analytics, and Big Data, represents significant challenges to traditional retailers but also the opportunity for a huge competitive advantage. Some observers may question the value of social media, especially with the valuations of high profile sites like…

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  • Head-on Store Wars at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street – So, who’s winning?

    Joe Fresh vs. Zara vs. H&M vs. Uniqlo I’ll admit it. I just don’t get what Joe Fresh (June 8–11) is doing in Manhattan. First admission: I’ve been a fan of Joe Fresh because of its value pricing (admittedly lower quality products, but that’s okay); great, edited styling (but for a specific market niche); and…

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  • Why Your Business Should Start Socializing

    A level playing field in the world of marketing is opening doors for small and medium sized businesses with limited advertising budgets.  With 75% of Canadians accessing broadband internet and another 62% of Canadian internet users estimated to be social network users, on networks such as Facebook and Twitter, customers are twice as accessible as…

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  • Things That We Learned From Our Mobility Panel

    Recently, Maureen Atkinson, Senior Partner at J.C. Williams Group, chaired a panel of bright mobility experts at the annual joint ICSC/CSCA Canadian Research Conference in Toronto.  Now this is usually made up of a series of presentations about land-based retail by property owners, leasing agents, and the consultants who work for them.  To have a…

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  • First Virtual QR Store in North America

    Apps, QR Codes, Virtual shopping, oh my!  We’ve all seen the video of Tesco’s virtual grocery store in Korea’s subway stations (click here), but did we think Canada would see the same concept in Toronto this soon?    We know that Canadian smartphone penetration has reached 45% of the mobile space and Canadians are some of…

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