The Best Retail Books of All Time

Physical retail isn’t dead—but boring retail is! Remarkable Retail equips the savvy retailer with eight essential strategies to thrive in an increasingly volatile and uncertain future. Digital technology has profoundly altered the competitive landscape for retailers. In Remarkable Retail, industry thought leader Steve Dennis argues that in a world of nearly infinite choice, where the lines between digital and physical are increasingly blurred, even being very good is no longer good enough. To win and keep customers today, retailers must be nothing short of remarkable.

In most retail categories, digital channels are often central to the consumer’s journey, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t also shopping in stores; they’re just using them differently, often browsing in one channel and buying in the other. The notion of a physical store channel and an ecommerce channel is increasingly a distinction without a difference; the customer is the channel. The future belongs to those who embrace the blur of digital and physical that represents modern retail today and work to deliver an experience that is more harmonized and more memorable, regardless of how consumers decide to shop. Packed with illuminating case studies from some of modern retail’s biggest success stories—and leveraging Dennis’s more than thirty years as a senior executive and strategic consultant to dozens of brands—Remarkable Retail lays out the case for going beyond a slightly better version of mediocre and forging a path to being truly remarkable. To help retailers on this transformation journey, Dennis presents eight essential strategies for visionary leaders who are prepared to reimagine their way of doing business. A remarkable retailer is digitally enabled, human-centered, harmonized, mobile, personal, connected, memorable, and radical. In an age where consumers have short attention spans, myriad options, and a digitally integrated relationship with every brand, Remarkable Retail is your indispensable guide to creating a powerful retail experience that keeps your customers coming back for more.

SILVER WINNER, IBPA BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AWARDS & FINALIST, 2018 FOREWORD INDIES BOOK OF THE YEAR. Featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Vox, The Shopping Revolution offers a “brilliant analysis of the disruptive effect that Amazon is having on the retail industry and how stores can fight back in order to survive,” according to Forbes’ Walter Loeb. Amazon disrupts everything it touches and upends any market it enters. In the era of its game-changing dominance, how can any company compete? We are just witnessing the start of the radical changes in retail that will revolutionize shopping in every way.

As Amazon and other disruptors continue to offer ever-greater value, customers’ expectations will continue to ratchet up, making winning (and keeping) those customers all the more challenging. For some retailers, the changes will push customers permanently out of their reach—and their companies out of business. In The Shopping Revolution, Barbara E. Kahn, a foremost retail expert and professor at The Wharton School, examines the companies that have been most successful during this wave of change, and offers fresh insights into what we can learn from their ascendance. Kahn, also the author of Global Brand Power: Leveraging Branding for Long-Term Growth, examines: How did Amazon become the retailer of choice for a large portion of the US population, and how can other companies work with them or compete with them?How did Walmart beat out other grocers in the late 1990s to become the leader in food retailing, and how must they pivot to hold their leadership position today?How did Warby Parker make a dent in the once-untouchable Luxottica’s lucrative eyewear business, and what can that tell start-ups about how to unseat a Goliath?How did Sephora draw customers away from once-dominant department stores to become the go-to retailers for beauty products, and what can retailers learn from their success?How are luxury and fast-fashion retailers competing in the ever-changing, fickle world of fashion? Building on these insights, Kahn offers a framework that any company can use to create a competitive strategy to survive and thrive in today’s—and tomorrow’s—retail environment. “A brisk and thought-provoking anatomy of shopping in the 21st century.”. —Kirkus Reviews. “A must-read for anyone who aspires to reach customers today—and tomorrow.”. —Marc Lore, CEO, Walmart eCommerce US. “A masterful storyteller, Barbara Kahn expertly unpacks the strategies of today’s seemingly unbeatable retailers. An indispensable guide for anyone who has a product to sell.”. —Stuart Weitzman, Founder, Stuart Weitzman LLC.

In an autobiographical account of his rise to the pinnacle of the American retail business, the personal reminiscences of the late billionaire retailer are combined with dozens of interviews with Sam Walton's family and friends. Large first printing. Major ad/promo.