The research
The original 2020 publication, rebuilt for the web. Seven chapters, in the order they were written.
Reborn
Exchange is the basic framework for understanding a market. This chapter traces it from Homans and Blau through Bagozzi — economic exchange, social exchange, what the model explains, and where it breaks down.
Technologies are transforming retail
A long time ago the word retail meant the physical store. Machine learning, AI, AR and VR, facial recognition, self-checkout and location-based services have made it mean considerably more.
Discovery, not design
Six stages every customer moves through, and a deep dive into how people actually shop for apparel in an omnichannel world — where journeys begin, where they end, and what happens after the purchase.
The metrics that still mean something
Year-over-year growth and position against competitors are becoming obsolete measures. This chapter works through the four that replace them — CLTV, CAC, churn rate and NPS — with the arithmetic in full.
Loyalty, membership and the discount problem
Seven kinds of loyalty programme and what each is actually for — followed by the uncomfortable evidence that most of them do not generate loyalty, the case for paid membership, and nine ways to discount without devaluing the product.
Temporary retail, and the psychology of free
Temporary retail dates to the Vienna December market of 1298 and has become a strategy in its own right. Alongside it: why free things work on people, and a six-step guide to running a giveaway that grows the business.
The shopper persona metrics
The final chapter, and the product itself — how eme calculates a shopper persona from real transactions, the four axes it resolves along, and the four tiers at which a store can join.
