Insights

By Leslie Hand, research director, IDC Retail Insights

Ron Johnson's highly publicized short tenure at J.C. Penney, or JCP, as it was rebranded, will certainly make it into the textbooks and graduate theses on what to do and what not to do when undertaking a significant retail business transformation. The primary failure was not putting customer needs first in what promised to be an excellent long term strategy. Oops — forget the customer in an omni-channel customer strategy?

What a colossal mistake!

By Ellis Verdi, president of the NYC advertising agency DeVito/Verdi

Here are the five lessons I learned from the J.C. Penney debacle — unfortunately we knew all of this before Ron took his ideas to market.

By Robert Passikoff, president, Brand Keys

In 2000, the average tenure of a CEO was 10 years. In 2008, it was down to eight and half, signaling a slightly higher degree of corporate and brand accountability by boards and shareholders. Ron Johnson, the now former-CEO of J.C. Penney, only lasted 17 months.

Here’s an interesting take on pop-up stores by Felicity Pogson, associate design director, interiors, Dalziel & Pow, London:

Costco Wholesale Corp.’s winning streak continues as the chain reported a better-than-expected 39% increase in profits for its fiscal second quarter. Here is Planet Retail’s take on the company’s most recent performance and future prospects:
 

Some are familiar; others not so. Fast Company’s annual list of “The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Retail” covers a lot of ground in its diversity. Here’s a recap:

1. Nike: Cited for its revolutionary new products and culture of “true believers.”

By Sandy Skrovan, U.S. research director, Planet Retail

By Oren Betzaleli, EVP, head of product and marketing, Retalix

As smartphones and tablets continue to infiltrate the market, they are increasingly changing the way people interact with each other, receive information, and expect to be served by retailers and service providers. As a result, more and more retailers are starting to offer self-service mobile applications as a popular means to manage customer interaction and relationships.

Retailer-Owned vs. Consumer-Owned Self-Service