Your source for information to grow your Fair Trade retail business. Covering strategies for social media, growing email lists and holding events.
Ever wondered how to get your products into the pages of top lifestyle magazines like InStyle, Shape, New York and others? While magazine editors are constantly on the hunt for products to include in their layouts, holiday gift guides are prime times. Here are some things to consider if you’re interested in getting your products[…]
Late last month, Facebook announced via a blog post that the popular social media platform will prioritize posts shared by friends and family over brands, publishers and other pages. This is particularly important to independent retailers because this algorithm change means your customers will see fewer posts from retailers and brands. “The growth and competition[…]
Marcela, of Calypso Glass Chile visited us again this year, this time with her son Oscar who started his own business Green Glass Chile, glassware made of recycled bottles, after college. Her first visit was in 2010 when she had an all-day layover in Miami on the way to the Frankfurt Germany gift show. She and[…]
Every single business has them: customers who are “just looking”. How do you move them from the just looking aisle to the register? First of all, maybe some people are just looking, and that’s fine. There is something to be said about the power of retail therapy. They’re in your store, they’re getting an idea[…]
Barkweave cloth — not to be confused with bark cloth made from tree bark — is cotton fabric with an amazing texture that is the basis for the high-quality traditional Sadza batiks from Zimbabwe. If you’ve handled any of the Zimbabwe batiks, you know the texture and thickness and can understand how important the fabric[…]
An ABC News report in April said the average person receives 500 pieces of junk e-mail every year. Well I must be getting the junk email slated for everyone in the world who doesn’t have a computer, tablet, or cell phone because I get about 500 a day. Okay, some of them are a result[…]
Your retail location has been up and running for a while. Sales have been consistent the last few years and you’re pretty happy. But there’s this little voice inside of you that says, “There are a lot of fair trade artisans and farmers out there that need you to sell more, so you can buy[…]
Is radical transparency the latest retail buzzword? Consumers are demanding more information when deciding which products to buy or consume. Rightly so, thanks to E.Coli outbreaks on produce like broccoli and investigations that reveal some of the items they buy might be produced under sweatshop conditions, among other human rights violations. How do retailers reconcile[…]
Does getting your product into a celebrity’s hands translate into sales at the retail level? Pick up any celebrity magazine or watch any awards show and you’ll notice how often celebrities show off their baubles or accessories and mention which designer they’re wearing. The reality is that we live in a celebrity-obsessed society and many[…]
Seasons become an interesting concept when one lives in places without them. Living in Florida means drifting through the months, only knowing that it’s summer when the school zone lights are no longer blinking on my way to work. So I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge that summer has arrived, even in Florida,[…]