What New Census Data Show about the State of Independent Retail
 By Stacy Mitchell, Originally Posted on

New Rules Project

According to newly released data from the U. S. Economic Census, overall sales at independent retailers grew by about 4 percent, after adjusting for inflation, between 2002 and 2007.

The bad news is that chains grew faster and independents still lost market share, falling from 31 to 28 percent of consumer retail spending. This decline in market share, however, was considerably slower in this five-year period, compared with the preceding 20 years, in which independents lost ground at a faster rate. In 1982, independent retailers captured nearly half of all retail spending. Read more highlights.

A Marketing Plan To Drive Traffic and Sales

By Mike Kraus, Originally Posted on Real World Retailing

So, you want to create a marketing plan, eh?  The truth is, it's not something you want or can do, it's something you need to do. Along with a sales plan and budgets, a marketing plan is your roadmap of how you're going to drive traffic into your stores and increase sales while customers are in store.