Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Retailers have to up their game to capitalize off of holiday sales. Here's how to leverage the five senses to encourage customers to buy. Walk into any American mall during the months of November and December, and, if you can tune out the hordes of frantic holiday shoppers, you'll likely notice upbeat Christmas music, the smell of pine boughs and cinnamon, bright red candy-canes, and plenty of free samples

Media companies aren't the only ones in the content-providing business these days. Meet Andrea Linett, eBay Fashion's creative director

Deciding whether to build a tablet or smartphone specific site requires an evaluation process, but it could be worth the payoff. Amazon has been making headlines much of September

“You shouldn’t wait for change—you should pioneer it,” said Paul Block, CEO of Merisant, the company that makes the sugar substitute Equal, and his remark pretty well summed up the theme of last Thursday’s conference session, “Growth and Innovation: Leveraging the Momentum.” A standing-room-only audience attended the panel discussion, in which Block was joined by serial entrepreneur Howard Tullman, CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Digital Media Arts Academy, and Lisa Price, CEO of Carol’s Daughter, a cosmetics company she launched 18 years ago while working as an assistant writer on “The Cosby Show.” Perhaps the best illustration of Block’s precept came from Price. Four years ago, she said, she and her management team had detected early signs of a major change in the tastes and preferences of their customer base, principally African-American women

Think those cat videos are addictive? Just wait ‘til your girlfriends start sending you videos of the latest collections from your favorite designers

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Take a deeper look at how Walmart plans to leverage the social data and connections of its massive customer base through its @WalmartLabs. Don’t know what to get your co-worker this Christmas? If all goes well at @WalmartLabs, Walmart may be able to suggest exactly what you and he and the neighbors and friends you both share are into.

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People are shopping with a mission, and brands are announcing themselves from behind store walls. The Proximity Era has begun. Mall rats soon may be an endangered species

After two decades of working with the tech giant, Darryl Peck opened a small Apple retail store called PeachMac.

A team at Bing gathers every few weeks to select the photos that will appear on the homepage each day. Here's what they're looking for

At an annual gathering of budding socially conscious businesspeople the money-for-good-deeds company held a competition to find the best path toward massive growth. For a company that wants to quickly grow its business from 2 million users to 10 million, there are a few obvious steps to take: consultants, marketing, focus groups. One less obvious step is the one Recyclebank --the company that offers redeemable rewards for recycling and other good behavior--took in its quest to grow: hold a competition of young social entrepreneurs to see who could come up with the best idea.

A solid mobile strategy will include several ways to connect with consumers via their mobile devices. Here are some key approaches and why you should be using them.

They aren't exactly bootstrappers, but these stars ventured outside their celebrity comfort zones to start their businesses. The “Sex and the City” star opened The Cutting Room in 1999 with business partner Steve Walter

Near-field wireless tech could reinvent not only your wallet, and how you shop--but also how you return defective products to the store under warranty. Near-field wireless tech may soon reinvent your wallet and how you shop--and now also how you return defective products under warranty to the store