The Retail Doctor Blog

Do High Ceilings Change How Customers Shop? | The Retail Doctor

Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 13:01:05 GMT

Retail Pricing Strategy: Protect Your Margin | The Retail Doctor

Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 20:00:00 GMT

How much margin should you give away? Should you match a competitor's price? Get these wrong and you train your best customers to wait for the next sale and hand your margin to Amazon. Get them right and you sell the value of what you carry at a price you can live on.

Retail Staff Management: Hire, Develop, and Keep a Team That Sells | The Retail Doctor

Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:00:40 GMT

Why is turnover so high in your stores? Why are your managers exhausted by closing time? And how do you get the same selling behavior in location 1 and location 200? Your team is your customer experience. In a punishing labor market, the retailers who win are the ones who build a bench, turn managers into coaches, and maintain clear standards and accountability across every store.

Why won't my retail associates sell higher-priced items?

Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:07:31 GMT

Why do associates steer customers to the cheaper option?

Because they price the product against their own bank account, not the customer's. Most of your newer hires are young, and young people have less money. That has always been true and it is not a knock on them. But this generation came up through lockdowns, watched the ladder get pulled up, and hears every week that AI is coming for whatever job they were going to get. So when you ask a twenty-two-year-old to sell a $700 purse, the voice in their head says exactly what any broke twenty-two-year-old would say. What a waste. I would find that used. Nobody needs that. They will never say it out loud. They will just do it with their feet.

AI Agents Buy Sight Unseen. Salespeople Keep You Off the Wrong One

Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 15:48:31 GMT

What an AI shopping agent actually does

At Google's I/O event, the company announced Universal Cart. Here is what it does, in plain terms.

5 Visual Merchandising Tactics That Lift Conversion

Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:25:49 GMT

Brazil's biggest retailer built an AI avatar from scratch and put her on the cover of Vogue Brasil.
Her name is Lu. She started as a mascot for Magazine Luiza, grew into 30 million followers, and has since worked with Adidas, Samsung, and McDonald's. Magalu coded a face that now sells more product in Brazil than most influencers with a pulse.

Retailers' Ace in the Hole Was Product Knowledge - in the 1950s. Here's What It Has to Be in 2026.

Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor — Thu, 28 May 2026 19:20:24 GMT

Product knowledge was a legitimate competitive edge when customers had no other way to get it. That world ended decades ago. Today's customer walks in already researched.

Your Big Sale Worked. That's the Problem.

Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor — Thu, 07 May 2026 13:42:00 GMT

Why retail owners and CEOs can't take more money out of their business - and how a waiting culture is the cause.

The Cost of Untrained Retail Associates Is Hiding in Your P&L

Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:01:04 GMT

Imagine buying four brand new Rolls-Royce coupes and handing the keys to someone who has never been behind the wheel.

Why Customers Stop Coming to Your Store and What to Do About It

Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:25:31 GMT

I was talking to my friend Kevin recently. He's a Broadway actor, and we got into a conversation about music - specifically, what made the women artists of the 60s and 70s so memorable.