Archive | 2018

Train travel

LVMH Bets on the Future of Luxury with Belmond Acquisition

On December 14 LVMH announced an agreement to acquire Belmond, the luxury travel and hospitality company formerly known as Orient Express Hotels. Belmond owns, partly owns or manages 36 hotels with a new one in the works for London, one stand-alone restaurant (NYC’s 21 Club), seven tourist trains and two river/canal cruise businesses. In 2017 hotels […]

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new year

Don’t Let the Grinch Steal Your Happy New Year

There is no question that retail is having a banner year. Through Oct. 2018, retail and food services, excluding motor vehicles, parts and gas stations, are up 5% over last year. All signs are the year will end way ahead of last. The National Retail Federation predicts Nov. and Dec. retail sales will increase between 4.2-4.8% […]

Pearls as perfect gem for millennials

Pearls Are Ready for a Comeback as the Perfect Gem for Millennials

While the jewelry industry pulls its collective hair out over mined versus man-made diamonds and millennials, it is time to change the conversation and talk about another gem perfectly suited to the next generation luxury jewelry consumers. Pearls are a natural, organic, environmentally-sustaining and virtually-renewable gem. Pearls come in all shapes and colors, play well […]

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Christmas Shopping

How to Attract Customers to the Store After Small Business Saturday Bombed This Year

Small Business Saturday bombed this year. While MSNBC’s J.J. Rathberg bragged on “Morning Joe” that sales on that Saturday reached a record $17.8 billion, she was largely reticent about the number of people who shopped or dined that day. That is because many fewer actually hit the streets this year. Small Business Saturday has been on a downward slide. […]

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Customer Loyalty

How Foot Locker, Nike and The North Face Earn Millennials’ Customer Loyalty

Ever since Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff declared that “Loyalty is dead,” in a November 2017 interview with Mad Money’s Jim Cramer, business leaders have been wringing their hands. But listen beyond the attention-getting soundbite, and you will learn that what Benioff is talking about is the way businesses define customer loyalty, i.e. as a program. […]

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