Ideas, information and industry news for collegiate retailers

You need to buy a new coffeemaker. Does a commercial with a former TV doctor advertising a coffeemaker and jet-set lifestyle influence your decision more or less than hearing your sister or neighbor talk about how much they love their new coffeemaker and all the features it has? The answer to the question comes down to one thing: trust. Consumers trust people they know. People who are “real.” Students are no different. In fact, Generation Z is even more inclined to reject conventional advertising than their previous generations.

With winter slowly coming to a close and spring break right around the corner, everyone could use a little bit of fun to brighten their day. A lively scavenger hunt will engage students and give them the opportunity to save some green in the store this March.

Amazon is one of the biggest retail innovators of the last two decades, arguably the 21^st century. They seemingly dive into markets overnight and change the way things are done along with the public’s expectations. We watched with amazement when Amazon acquired Whole Foods, wondering what, if anything, would change. Now, the famously expensive grocery chain has seen price cuts and Prime members will get perks in the store — a clear sign Amazon is leaving its mark. What wisdom can small stores extrapolate from Amazon’s business practices to carry their college store into the future?

Have you noticed that your store’s Facebook reach has gone down? This isn’t necessarily a reflection of what you are or are not doing on your page to drive engagement. Facebook is making changes to what users see in their newsfeed. Find out how the changes affect your page.

Meetings can often feel like the enemy of progress. They can break up our days into odd chunks, prevent or interrupt deep work, and they can negatively effect workplace satisfaction. Despite downsides, meetings can also increase communication and collaboration, ideally producing a better end result. Committee meetings aren’t an exception. To ensure the time you commit to committee meetings is beneficial, it is important to periodically evaluate the reason for the committee and whether or not it is still serving its intended purpose.

Student hunger on campuses is more prevalent than most people think. Head into a packed student center or campus dining facility, and it is easy to believe that the problem doesn’t exist on your campus, but chances are it does. According to a Students Against Hunger report, more than 45% of the 3,000 students surveyed from community and four-year colleges had experienced food insecurity in the past 30 days.

We share a monthly marketing plan at the beginning of every month designed to increase store traffic and boost student trust and engagement. Included in the plans are posters, flyers, examples social media posts and more so your store has everything it needs for a spectacular event. As you develop your store’s marketing idea for 2018, check out our top five most popular monthly marketing plans in 2017.

Happy holidays from Foreword Online.

Everyone is talking about it. The “Amazon Effect” is scattered across retail news. The most recent companies to feel the impact are Ralph Lauren and J. Crew, but large department stores like Macy’s have been feeling the effect for a while. When Amazon has the seeming ability to line up these large corporations, regardless of what they sell, and systematically watch them fall, what hope does any brick-and-mortar store have?

Geofencing can be used for anything from increasing foot traffic in stores to parents keeping track of their children — even human resource departments can utilize this technology to monitor employees who work in the field or from home. These virtual fences allow marketers to hone their advertising efforts to a selected group of people, often based on various factors of online behaviors, within an established distance from a store’s location using their mobile GPS. An Orwellian advancement in technology to some, but to others, geofencing gives brick-and-mortar businesses a way to compete in a growing eCommerce market.