Paula Rosenblum
Forbes
Miami, FL, United States
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Past articles by Paula:
U.S.-China Trade War Brings Fear, Uncertainty And Potential Insolvency To Retailers
The uncertainty surrounding current and impending tariffs is creating risks of unintended consequences for retailers. Marginally performing retailers could be thrown into Chapter 11 as a result. → Read More
New Chief Merchant At Macy's Has A Big Job Ahead Of Her
Macy's has hired a new chief merchandising officer. Patti Ongman is a 33-year veteran of the company and has a big job ahead of her. → Read More
As Sears Plunges Toward Chapter 11, Lampert Stands To Win, Whatever Happens
Sears Holdings has reportedly hired advisers to help it prepare for a bankruptcy filing. Its CEO stands to win, regardless of how things work out. → Read More
Confusion Reigns In The Wake Of Saks, Lord And Taylor Data Breach
Consumer credit card information was stolen from a number of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord and Taylor stores. The theft was confirmed by the parent company, Canadian-based Hudson’s Bay Corporation, on April 2. Consumers are not responsible for any losses associated with the stolen cards. → Read More
A Year Into The Era Of Chip-Embedded Credit Cards, What Have We Solved, Exactly?
We’ve got lawsuits, slower check-outs and confusion, and not a whole lot more security than we had before the transition to the EMV standard. And the holiday season is coming soon. → Read More
Amazon's Ad Targeting Fail: Confederate Flags on Facebook
By now, many people know in the wake of the heinous hate crime in Charleston, SC, the Confederate flag is being removed from government property in Charleston, and also from store shelves. Walmart, Kmart and several other retailers have removed the Confederate flag from shelves and web sites. Amazon and [...] → Read More
Stagnant Sales Are Behind Walmart's Earnings Miss
As expected, Walmart’s first-quarter earnings were below analysts’ projections. A kitchen sink’s worth of reasons were cited for the miss: the strong dollar, employee wage increases, consumer wallet tightening, lower gas prices, and weakness in its e-commerce business. The truth is a lot simpler – Walmart has a sales problem. The [...] → Read More
Target Buys Just Enough Lilly Pulitzer To Take Down Its Web Site And Irritate Customers
The merchants didn’t know how much to buy, the marketing folks didn’t give store operations the proper heads up that something notable was coming into the store, and the company’s e-commerce technology could not stand up to a short burst load. But Target still proved it can generate excitement -- how may retailers can say the same? → Read More
Five Reasons Why Prime Now Will Drive Real Profits To Amazon
On the surface, it’s hard to believe that a one- or two-hour personal delivery service would be less expensive than Amazon's regular Prime 2-day shipping. In this case, I think it will be, and will actually be very profitable -- a welcome development for investors, and a real wake-up call to other retailers ranging from warehouse stores to Walmart. → Read More
Bankrupt RadioShack's Attempts To Sell Customer Data Meets Resistance
By now most everyone knows that RadioShack’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy was designed to be a pre-packaged asset sale. That sounded pretty benign when we were talking about the sale or auction of store leases to companies like Sprint, but it turns out data is an asset too. And customer data [...] → Read More
Why The Dangers Of Apple Pay Fraud Are Overhyped
Over the past two days I’ve received four or five different emails advising me that “Fraud is Running Rampant on Apple Pay.” This is a pretty provocative statement and I felt obligated to research the particulars. It’s important to say right up front that this is a tempest in a teapot, [...] → Read More
TJX Boosts Pay For Hourly Workers: Is 2015 The Year of The Retail Store Employee?
On Wednesday February 25, TJX, parent company of the TJ Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods retail chains announced it is joining a growing list of retailers increasing base pay for hourly employees to $9 an hour. The company follows Walmart, IKEA, Gap and others in moving beyond the federally mandated [...] → Read More
Sprint, Amazon Zero In On RadioShack As The End Seems Near
The death watch for the venerable RadioShack chain of stores continues, and rumors abound. In January, the Wall Street Journal reported the company was preparing for a bankruptcy filing, as early as February. A more recent story, published by Bloomberg Business, also talks of bankruptcy, and reports Sprint is planning to buy [...] → Read More
Wet Seal Whipped: Expect More Casualties As Fast Fashion Retailers Take Over Teen Market
Last weekend another teen fashion retailer, Wet Seal, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. On the face of it, Wet Seal is just another mid-market fashion retailer that failed to grow profitably. A deeper looks makes it apparent that the world of teen fashion has changed irrevocably. The list of casualties [...] → Read More
Big Banks' Position on Credit Card Security Difficult To "Pin" Down
Cybersecurity is on everyone's mind. According to a report from IBM, more than 61 million data records were stolen through cyberattacks in 2014. Despite high profile attacks on the financial services industry, iCloud accounts, and the recent Sony data hack, the retail and wholesale industries were the most frequent targets. While theft [...] → Read More
Apple Pay: What the Early Numbers Are Telling Us
Everyone seems to want to know if Apple Pay is going to be the game-changer its roll-out seemed to promise. Certainly participating banks are all-in, offering promotions for customers who use the technology. New banks are announcing they’re ready to participate daily. People who get their hands on an iPhone [...] → Read More
Why Is It So Hard To Find A Good Retail CEO?
This was the year we learned that a good retail CEO is really hard to find. It’s easier when a retailer is executing on a successful strategy. The successful CEO puts together a succession plan, and when the time is right, he or she pulls the trigger. But when the [...] → Read More
Lessons From Home Depot: Expect Hackers To Crack More Retailers This Holiday Season
The new details that Home Depot revealed Thursday about its data breach tell us a lot. We have come to a very real crossroads. Retailers have no choice. They must assume the perimeters of their computer networks WILL be breached. Hackers continue to run one step ahead of retailers and their security [...] → Read More
In Wake Of MCX Breach, Walgreens Looks Even Smarter For Embracing Apple Pay
On October 29 I had the opportunity to have a wide-ranging conversation with Walgreen Co. Vice President of Digital Marketing and Customer Experience, Deepika Pandey. The topic was mobile payments, Duane Reade and Walgreens, and their decision to accept Apple Pay. This conversation happened before the announcement of a data breach [...] → Read More
CVS And Rite-Aid Turn Off Apple Pay: What's Really Going On
In a battle that some might say is much ado over not-very-many transactions, CVS and Rite-Aid pharmacies turned off the ability to accept Apple Pay in their stores last week. In fact, by disabling the Near Field Communications (NFC) chip readers in all their credit card terminals they also turned off [...] → Read More