I’ve reference the National Retail Federation’s cheery holiday shopping statistics so I thought they would be a good candidate for a report card:
Overview: The National Retail Federation NRF represents an industry with more than 1.6 million U.S. retail companies, more than 25 million employees – about one in five American workers – and 2007 sales of $4.5 trillion.
Associate members? Yes, annual membership is anywhere from $500-8,000 for commercial entities. “B”
Public membership directory? No, looks like you need a membership. “D”
National conference? Yes, and they provide a detailed conference schedule with helpful biographical information on the speakers. “B+”
Subchapters? Yes, NRF also represents over 100 state, national and international retail associations but not easy to find links to those associations on the main website. “C+”
Industry reports or news? Excellent list of reports and news. “A”
Glossary? A limited glossary of retail labor terms: “C+”
Provides a sense of the industry? Excellent, from the detailed information about their annual conferences, news, reports and government relations, there is lots of information that provides a strong sense of the industry. “A”
Overall: The website isn’t that easy to navigate, partly because there is so much information and it appears to be a collection of other website with their own navigation but the content makes it worthwhile. “B+”
Reading Tea Leaves by Randy Wilson 