Forbes Contributing Writer

Great “IRL” (in real life) customer experiences are still the exception and not the rule, despite the fact that businesses have never had more ways to communicate with customers. Just as we continually upgrade our software to stay current, we must upgrade our customer experiences to stay relevant Elevating the…

Las Vegas – the other city that never sleeps – was the perfect setting for the annual Shoptalk retail conference. More than 8,400 attendees descended on The Venetian last week for an action-packed four days discussing the future of the industry. Across multiple sessions and hundreds of speakers, the message…

I’m still buzzing from the National Retail Federation’s Annual Big Show. Energizing, exhilarating and exhausting (in a good way), it’s the world’s largest retail conference, with nearly 40,000 attendees and 700 exhibitors filling the Javitz Center in New York. It’s a great place to get inspired and take the pulse…

Sitting in the crowd at the seventh annual 3% Conference, I couldn’t help but think that if this conference had existed when I was 22 years old, it might have changed my life – or at least, my career. Back then, I was a fresh college graduate who aspired to…

When you run a legacy business like 120-year-old Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, you can either wait to be disrupted, or you can disrupt yourself. Goodyear has chosen the latter. This week, the company introduced Roll by Goodyear, a pilot retail concept for tire sales and installation that is almost…

You’re busy. Your calendar is packed. You spend your days in back-to-back meetings. The last time you had lunch outside the office was so long ago, OpenTable didn’t even exist. And email? Let’s not go there. This is the status quo for many of us. And the result is that…

When I conduct research with people about what they buy and why they buy, I often hear women say that they already have a lot of stuff; what they could really use is more help. This kind of comment is usually followed by an enthusiastic account of all the apps…

Watching the cobra writhe out of its wicker basket, I knew this was no ordinary shopping expedition. I was standing in the middle of one of the world’s oldest and most famous markets – the Jamaa el Fna Square in Marrakech, Morocco, and I was dizzy with sensory overload. The…

During the past decade, we’ve seen historically “masculine” brands and businesses — from motorcycles to hardware to beer to trucks, to name just a handful — seek growth by marketing their products and services to women. The list is long and getting longer: Harley-Davidson. Home Depot. Under Armour. Trunk Club.…

When it comes to growing your business with the world’s most powerful consumers, are you behind the curve, keeping up or leading the pack? The following six questions are a great way to kick-start your thinking, whether marketing to women is a new effort for your company or you’re building…