6 Retail Blogs Worth Reading

Running a retail business comes with a unique set of challenges and it can be helpful to hear best practices from like-minded business owners and thought leaders. There are countless retail blogs out there that bring together the latest and greatest ideas into one place. Here at Homebase, we’ve put together a list of the six retail blogs worth reading for anyone running a retail operation. They range from national organizations that keep you up to date with industry trends to day to day management tips. Let’s jump right into the retail blogs you need to be reading. ‍

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National Retail Federation

Want to stay current on holiday retail strategies, industry trends, marketing tips, and more? That’s exactly what NRF provides. This trade association is the largest in the world, catering to retailers in the US and 45 other countries. In addition to frequent blog posts that keep readers on the forefront of the industry, they also offer “holiday headquarters” for all major retail holidays with tips and projections to help retailers of all sizes make the most out of it. This retail blog is a great one to follow for retailers that want to grow and keep up with technology moving the needle of the industry.

Retail Customer Experience

Price is something that you hear about day in and day out. While the industry gets more and more competitive, price drops are sometimes inevitable to stay in the game. However, low prices and even lower margins don’t often lead to the results retailers are looking for. Therefore, in the long run working on your customer experience will produce more loyal shoppers than a specific pricing strategy. On the Retail Customer Experience blog, you can learn the customer experience strategies that are working wonders for large scale retailers. This retail blog offers tips on how to put trendy retail strategies to work, such as personalization and how associates approach sales.   

The Balance

The Balance is a finance website and it ranges from personal to business. Overall, the blog isn’t retail focused, but it has a large section for small businesses with strategies that are easy to apply to everyday management situations. When reading the small business section you’ll gain knowledge on wide ranging topics, such as growth strategies, customer service tips, and business loans. The Balance is helpful for all stages of a retail business, such as one in the idea phase that requires funding to established businesses that want to put a solid Small Business Saturday sales strategy into place.

Small Business Trends

A little more technical than the other blogs on this list, Small Business Trends tends to focus more on the data and technology news within the retail sector. Small Business Trends also includes some growth snapshots, so you can see if your retail business tracks with the larger trends they’ve found nationwide.  

RetailWire

RetailWire aggregates retail news from other publications alongside their own articles and discussions. While many articles tend to focus on large retailers like Wal-Mart and Amazon, much of their advice is applicable regardless of the size of your business. You can also find some perspectives on how current legislation might impact your business -- like a recent article on how changes to net neutrality might impact your online storefront.

Homebase

Here at Homebase, our blog offers tips on employee scheduling, time tracking, retail payroll management and team communication, just to name a few. We aim to help local businesses with tips and tricks to manage their business and employees. From hiring to employee appreciation to overtime law compliance, our blog posts help retailers take their businesses to the next level. These are just a few retail blogs that can help improve your shop with a daily dose of inspiration and strategy. What retail blogs do you recommend? Once you find the retail blogs that pique your interest, put the tips you learn to work in your business. Homebase can help with employee scheduling, time tracking, and more for free.