Ray Allegrezza

Link This | Email This | Comments (0)

Sky’s the Limit

If two heads are better than one, what happens if you have 350 heads (all with razor-sharp minds) in one room for a couple of days all focused on the same issues?The answer is that you get the best...the best questions, the best ideas, the best solutions and the best thinking.I know this to be true because I saw it a few weeks ago when we hosted our 14th annual Furniture/Today Leadership Conferenc... More

Link This | Email This | Comments (3)

Recovery Unresolved

If Charles Dickens was here to write this column, I am fairly certain of two things: It would be better than whatever I wrote, and based on the current state of affairs, he might have been tempted to name it A Tale of Two Stories.And he would have been right, because there really are two concurrent - but very different - stories unfolding, and you should be aware of each of them.One of the stories... More

Link This | Email This | Comments (7)

Give retailers what they want with accurate delivery dates, inventory tracking

It's a safe bet that ever since Adam met Eve, men have been trying (with varying degrees of success) to figure out what women really want.And before I get your hopes up, I confess that I don't have an answer, much less the answer. But what I do have to share with you are the findings from a just-released study that I asked our research department to conduct with manufacturers and retailers who are... More

Link This | Email This | Comments (5)

Size Matters: Smaller Living Gains Big Impressions

I know you've heard this before, but size matters.No, really. And if you've been watching closely, you've probably noticed that living smaller seems to be looming larger every day.Chalk it up to a recession hangover, changing consumer shopping patterns or a growing need for Americans to attempt to simplify their lives, but from where I sit, conspicuous consumption and the need for things on a gran... More

Link This | Email This | Comments (2)

Peer power: Consumers are relying on each other for buying decisions

A study co-released last month by PowerReviews and the e-tailing group, confirmed that consumers have become far more educated, sophisticated and demanding in their purchases as a result of doing more and more research online.The 2011 Social Shopping Study also found that peer-to-peer product reviews are becoming increasingly more important to the consumer's purchasing decisions.If I were a retail... More