The Productive Pessimist

  Recently, we were asked "if wedding fayres actually make any money, & how resilient they're likely to be." The ask came from someone who had attended a wedding show as an interested observer, and hadn't noticed a great many customers in the time they were there. While the wedding industry is not our focus, challenges to all sectors, including retail, absolutely falls under our strategic leadership focus. The wedding industry, in particular, is very much feeling the impact of people buying formal wear through vintage, thrift, and low-cost online retailers, because it is more affordable. However, many of those people, particularly brides, still want an "experience" as part of their wedding preparations, which is something wedding retailers used to give as a loss-lead, knowing they'd sell high-mark-up dresses as a result of the "pamper day experience", and make a plentiful amount of income from even just one session. Online retail, and its ...

  It's happened again.  Your cookies have tracked what seemed to be an engaged, potentially high-spending customer across your website. They lingered the appropriate amount, clicked suitably quickly, examined the full, carefully-crafted description your copywriter had two fits of screaming profanity, three breaks to cry in the loo, and one episode of throwing a hardbacked version of the Oxford English Dictionary  at a colleague's head before their words were finally approved. The customer's virtual basket shows enough variety to suggest new marketing angles, but not so much that your software can't categorise them effectively. It will be possible for the software to prompt the tried-and-tested selection of marketing approaches that (mostly) work with their demographic. To appeal to their ambitions, their glittering image of themselves, their fears, their hopes, their prejudices, and, in doing so, get more money from them. Then - disaster! They've left your website! ...