Despite tough headlines for many of the industry’s biggest retailers, one specialty retailer is bucking the trend in an industry plagued by indecision and distraction. It didn’t take long to see results. Just five months after the official launch of their new conversion program, Cycle Gear was already seeing great comp results, and by the end of the year, the company had their best Black Friday ever.  Read the article

Despite tough headlines for many of the industry’s biggest retailers, HeadCount and Cycle Gear are demonstrating what’s possible. Cycle Gear, a specialty retailer of motorcycle parts and apparel, increased quarter-over-quarter comp sales across its 140 store locations in 38 states while keeping wage budgets in line. Read the article

A recent deal with the e-com merce giant sent Sears’ stock price soaring by nearly 20%, but critics are skeptical about whether it will be a saving grace.  Mark Ryski, Author, CEO & Founder of HeadCount Corporation describes the move as one of  “desperation”. “After everything Sears has been through (and continues to go through) it’s hard to see how this is anything but a Lampert lark.”  Read the article

Many of America’s biggest retailers, under assault from Amazon.com Inc., have been slashing staff even faster than they have been closing stores, a dynamic that has left fewer clerks and longer checkout lines at remaining locations. Mark Ryski, Author, CEO & Founder of HeadCount Corporation contributes to an important Wall Street Journal article on why retailers should stop slashing staff and how critical it is to be staffing to traffic not sales transactions.  Read the full article: Retail’s Other Problem -Too Few Clerks in the Store or visit the WSJ web site.

Special to Financial Post from Mark Ryski.  In 2003, I made the jump from a career as a vice-president of a software company to being an entrepreneur.  It occurred to me that, in part, most retailers didn’t see the value in what I was offering because very little had ever been said about it.  My next challenge was to figure out how to write a book and get it published – how hard could that be?   The only problem with a ‘Book Strategy’ is that you actually need to write a book. Read the article

The reality was, I didn’t have any options. We continued to burn cash and just weren’t getting any traction in the business.I had convinced everyone on my small start-up team that the book would lead us to the entrepreneurial promise land.  Read the article

During my many sleepless nights, it occurred to me that I had two key issues: first, there was a legitimate lack of understanding about the benefits my analytics could provide, and, second, I couldn’t get to the real decision-makers.  My obsession with trying to solve these challenges – and a desperation to keep my business alive – led to a eureka moment: I’ll write a book!  Read the article

Store managers may not be able to increase foot traffic, but they can influence other factors to improve productivity.  Even in a world of declining store traffic, there are a number of things retailers need to do. The five most important are listed below.  Read the article

For the fast-fashion behemoth, it seems like lately they may have lost their forward-thinking mojo. Industry experts and Retailwire Braintrust members weighed in, with Mark Ryski of Headcount Corporation commenting, “It’s ironic that the brand that virtually invented fast fashion is suffering from the impact of a weekly fashion cycle. Fashion is fickle, and it’s clear that H&M is not immune.  Read the article 

With all the hubbub around Go, one would expect that legacy retailers are scrambling to develop their own cashier-less checkout systems, much as they did with two-day and same-day delivery. But according to store traffic and conversion analytics expert Mark Ryski, Amazon’s competitors ain’t taking the bait. Read the article