This week I spent two days in the company of some of Australia’s most senior retailers at the Retail Leaders Forum in Sydney. It’s always worthwhile attending industry specific forums, anywhere in the world. The shared knowledge, interaction and discussion from all parts of the industry sheds light on many areas – often deliberately, but sometimes unintentionally – in the heat of debate.

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It's been a week full of grog this week; all in the pursuit of good retail marketing. While most of the market focused on Woolworths’ overall result as being a bad thing, the company’s liquor and pub division results showed clearly how well its considered liquor strategy, consistently executed over a long period, is paying off.

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Being based in Sydney, I spent last week in New Zealand just so I could remind myself of what summer feels like in the southern hemisphere. CROSSMARK’s New Zealand office is one of our prettiest office locations in the CROSSMARK world, and that is saying something.

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During my store walks over the past year I have walked many surf brand stores. I walked them in normal suburban strip malls, in mega malls, duty free zones and as store-in-stores in major department stores. These visits spanned regional and metro areas – I visited them where they were not only relevant, but iconic, and also the home beach of brands such as Rip Curl, Billabong and Quiksilver.

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As we move beyond Australia Day and Auckland Day into the real start of the year in our unique countries, it's worth looking at how the US has traded through its holiday and New Year sales season.

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This article first appeared July 19, 2011.

There is an old adage in retail marketing. It revolves around the importance of the power of the retail store staff to change our minds when we come pre-prepared to buy a specific brand. The adage is that: "if it goes on the body, in the body or costs over $50, we shoppers always ask store staff for advice." 

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It's been a tough year for a number of Australian retail sectors – which means it's been a tough year for manufacturers, suppliers, freight forwarders, clearing agents, recruiters and employees.

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The great thing about the US is access to data. Huge amounts of broadly collected and publicly available shared shopper data that allows people to make decisions on how to talk to shoppers.

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A few weeks ago I wrote about the lead up to the Christmas and New Year in Australia, New Zealand and the US, and the real sense that this holiday season will be much better than the last.

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There’s so much talk about the rise of retailer owned brands and a misplaced belief that this is a bad thing for Australians and a bad thing for Australian companies who manufacture here. Yet we have very clear evidence of well-run businesses thriving under hard working and down to earth Australians.

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