As part of its mission to advocate for its members, the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) hosted a small business and government roundtable June 28-29 at its Indianapolis headquarters. The event allowed independent home improvement retailers to discuss their …

Lowe’s recently launched a program called The UpSkill Project that trains consumers on the skills they need to complete DIY home improvement projects, the company reports. The program will send Lowe’s employees to 40 communities in the U.S. to teach nearly 200 consumers the …

Sears announced Thursday that it will begin selling Kenmore appliances on Amazon that feature Amazon’s smart home assistant Alexa, reports the Chicago Tribune. According to the article, Sears will sell Kenmore appliances that can be operated using Alexa’s voice-activation capabilities. …

Millennials and the generation group after them, Gen Z, make up nearly half of the U.S. population, which is good news for the retail sector, according to a recent Forbes article. However, Forbes says that the economic environment that this …

J.C. Penney announced Monday that its executive vice president and chief financial officer, Edward Record, would vacate his position effective July 11 “to pursue other interests,” according to the company. Record joined the apparel and home goods retailer in March …

Walmart has introduced virtual reality (VR) headsets into its training program, allowing new employees to practice customer service before encountering customers on the salesfloors, the company reports. Walmart says the technology is intended to allow new store associates “to experience …

In the July 2017 issue of Hardware Retailing, the North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA) and Independent We Stand debuted the their latest joint research project, the Home Sweet Home Pros’ Edition study. The study found that for every dollar pros spend at independent …

Small business marketing can help you develop and support the brand of your operation. Forbes recently published a list of five quick tips to manage small business marketing, and these pointers can be applied to any independent home improvement operation. Here is …