Marketing Articles About Retail Search Results

1. Mobile Retail Expected to Top $12B in '14. The global mobile retail market is expected to top $12 billion by 2014, according to [pdf] a new study by Juniper Research. “Mobile Marketing & Retail Strategies: Advertising, Coupons & Smart Posters... (03/10/10 09:00 PM)

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3. Optimism Down Among Small Business Owners. According to Sign On San Diego, a survey states that pessimism has risen among small businesses during the past month. The fallback in confidence is occurring even as the economy seems to have bottomed out, with retail sales picking up nationwide and an increasing number of small businesses preparing to add workers. “News about the economy is [...] (03/10/10 09:00 AM)

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9. Role of Retail in Sustainability. Just posted Role of Retail in Sustainability on my business blog. I'm surprised at how few retailers are stepping up to the plate and helping consumers make educated choices on sustainable products. Best Buy is a laggard, Home Depot is... (07/30/09 09:00 PM)

10. Retailers Reprogram Workers...Should Reprogram Customers. In an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Ann Taylor and stores like it were profiled for their use of systems like Atlas (Ann Taylor Labor Allocation System), developed by RedPrairie Corp, that track employee sales and activities and adjust their schedules to match the store's busy times, thus maximizing profitability. While I understand this is a great productivity tool, it's taking a bit of the humanity out of retailing...somewhat.

    The sluggish national economy has put pressure on many retailers to pinch pennies. "The single biggest controllable cost in retail is people," says Carl Steidtmann, chief economist at Deloitte LLP. Because few retail workers belong to unions, he says, it is easier for employers to "move people around." Vendors of the systems claim they can boost productivity by 15% or more, and can help cut labor costs by 5% or more.

    What I find even more interesting, and this is JUST for Ann Taylor (having a wife who's a fan of their clothes) is the heavy discounting that they've trained their customers to come to expect! Just last night, she produced a series of coupons, some for actual dollar amounts off of the merchandise and some for large percentages like 20% to 30% off any purchase over a certain figure. I understand margins, I know that they're high in the fashion industry, and I'm sure that there's good reason for this. However, customers of Ann Taylor and other brands like them (some of those mentioned in the article, most likely) have trained their customers to shop based on price and incentives. Period. Sure, the clothes fit...but seriously - 30% off on a regular basis? Action Item: So, what have you trained your customers to do? Expect things on sale, expect things you don't like doing? This is a great opportunity (and I'm doing this too) to look at your customer base from the perspective of lifetime value, and re-segment them based on 'those who should be with you in the future' and 'those who aren't going to be with you in the future'.
    (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

11. Retailers Reprogram Workers...Should Reprogram Customers. In an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Ann Taylor and stores like it were profiled for their use of systems like Atlas (Ann Taylor Labor Allocation System), developed by RedPrairie Corp, that track employee sales and activities and adjust their schedules to match the store's busy times, thus maximizing profitability. While I understand this is a great productivity tool, it's taking a bit of the humanity out of retailing...somewhat.

    The sluggish national economy has put pressure on many retailers to pinch pennies. "The single biggest controllable cost in retail is people," says Carl Steidtmann, chief economist at Deloitte LLP. Because few retail workers belong to unions, he says, it is easier for employers to "move people around." Vendors of the systems claim they can boost productivity by 15% or more, and can help cut labor costs by 5% or more.

    What I find even more interesting, and this is JUST for Ann Taylor (having a wife who's a fan of their clothes) is the heavy discounting that they've trained their customers to come to expect! Just last night, she produced a series of coupons, some for actual dollar amounts off of the merchandise and some for large percentages like 20% to 30% off any purchase over a certain figure. I understand margins, I know that they're high in the fashion industry, and I'm sure that there's good reason for this. However, customers of Ann Taylor and other brands like them (some of those mentioned in the article, most likely) have trained their customers to shop based on price and incentives. Period. Sure, the clothes fit...but seriously - 30% off on a regular basis? Action Item: So, what have you trained your customers to do? Expect things on sale, expect things you don't like doing? This is a great opportunity (and I'm doing this too) to look at your customer base from the perspective of lifetime value, and re-segment them based on 'those who should be with you in the future' and 'those who aren't going to be with you in the future'.
    (09/11/08 09:00 AM)

12. Social Shopping and Getting Your Share of the $600 Stimulus Check.

    Personally, I'm a huge fan of social shopping sites. Several times per year our family, just like everyone else, is tasked with purchasing various gifts for relatives, Christmas, birthdays and other such moments. Like most guys out there, I rarely, if ever know what to buy!

    Enter social shopping sites. According to a recent AP article on MSNBC "Web surfers buying into social shopping sites":
    

    Social shopping sites with such names as Kaboodle, ThisNext, Wishpot and StyleHive combine two of the Web's most prominent activities: engaging in commerce and chatting with like-minded folks. The sites don't directly sell things, but encourage users to share links to good bargains, obscure finds, products that work and ones that don't.

    All of those sites are pretty sweet, if you ask me. While not a 'social shopping' site per se, I'm partial to using Gifts.com as well. I've gotten some solid ideas from there as well.

    With Valentine's Day just around the corner (hmm...what should I get this year???), now is a great time to test out all of the social shopping engines to see what kind of goodies they recommend.

    Personally, Kaboodle and Gifts.com had the most ideas for gifts I'd likely purchase. However, the others had some good ideas as well. Wishpot is actually powered by results from Shopping.com.

    Now, how does all of this have anything to do with the likely "stimulus package" that we're about to receive? (If you've not tuned in to the $150B economic stim pack banter, here's a square assessment from the WSJ[sub]). Well, if you believe that Americans will follow a similar behavior pattern following tax refund time (Tax-refund season helps kick off the spring shopping season. Last year, retail sales jumped 12% to 20% in March), there's going to be a portion of us, 12% to 28% of us, depending on who you ask, who will go out and immediately spend the money, it's a marketer's world and the smartest marketer will win when seeking their fair share of the potential 'windfall' check that consumers are likely to receive this late spring to early summer. Here's where really knowing your customers and their behavior can pay off. A few ideas:

    1. Go back to your customer or buyer profile and figure out who in your customer base will be getting the lion's share of the stimulus monies. For reference, families with <$110K in earnings and individuals with <$75K will be getting the most, while the lowest income and highest income segments of the population will be getting the least. Needless to say, this won't be the time to go after your high rollers who just got a check for $200...
    2. Run a contest or a survey or something to get inside the heads of your customers. If you're doing a regular email newsletter, throw in a survey question or two that takes a fun approach at getting after "what they're going to do with their checks". Segment out those that intend to 'spend it' for a separate marketing effort around the time that checks are distributed.
    3. Be mindful of all of the recession talk. People might not splurge on that big gas grill they've been lusting over, but they might be interested in securing a raft of gift cards or gift certificates to kick off their Christmas or birthday shopping. Now would be a great time to mention that yours have no expiration date and that they're a great way to stretch their dollars for themselves and their loved ones

    Whether or not you agree with the efficacy of the stimulus package, if you look at this from the perspective of 'customer behavior' and tap into the most 'likely to buy' segment of your customer base, you're setting yourself up to capture your fair share of the $150B that's likely to be doled out.
    

    
    (04/04/08 09:00 PM)

13. Future of Online Retailing -- Four Predictions. Forrester and Jupiter report that more than 70% of online shoppers seek out user reviews before making a purchase decision. MarketingSherpa reports that 84% of consumers prefer the opinion of other consumers vs. experts. Hundreds of retailers including WalMart, Best Buy, HP, and the Home Depot have followed Amazon’s lead by allowing their consumers to review products in the online channel. Consumers demand social commerce solutions and retailers are driving measurable results. As consumers are presented with increasing choices, channels, and messages, they will continue to turn to peers to discover, research, and make decisions about products and services. Retailers will need to utilize technology and best practices to provide authentic, relevant, and effective social commerce solutions to retain their customers into the future. 1) SOCIAL CONTENT IS GOING MULTI-CHANNEL The future of reviews and social content is going beyond the product page and into other channels such as mobile phones, kiosks, print collateral, online advertising, and social networks. It is clear that consumers rely on social content to make purchasing decision. They will expect to be able to access to this content regardless of channel in order to inform their purchasing process. The retailers that provide this multi-channel access will develop competitive advantages in their markets to attract and retain consumers. Additionally, more retailers will see the value of integrating social commerce with CRM and other “back-end” channels. Retailers will start to leverage social content as a key input into driving decisions in marketing, sales, advertising, customer support, and... (12/09/07 09:01 PM)

14. Focus Word of Mouth Marketing on Influencers or the Network?. At the WOMMA conference in Las Vegas (Nov. 14, 15) one of the primary topics on the table is the debate and implications to the marketer focusing on the influencer or the network. The influencer model suggests you should focus on the few (say 15%) who are disporportionately influential. Malcom Gladwell called these the Connectors and Mavens. The netowrk model suggests that the importance is having many connections is more important. I'm not fully versed on both of these equally. I'm looking forward to learning more at WOMMA Summit. However, in my experience and in practice, I don't think a word of mouth marketing strategy is complete without a consideration and strategy for both. The breadth of the network is like reach. Your message can carry throughout a broad set of diverse influencers...some more influential than others. However, I believe there are personas that are more likely to share word of mouth. In my experience these people spend more and more frequently, in a retail example. For example Jupiter found the online 'Super Communicators" represent less than 20% of user generated content but over 30% of spend.Bigger mouths = bigger wallets! I think frequency and reach are still relevant concepts, but more relevant when applied to word of mouth. If I see a brand in facebook, in a review, in an online review, in a forum post, and then perhaps I see it in advertising as well then I will be more predisposed to buy. Along that journey perhaps one... (10/07/07 08:58 AM)

15. Buy Google, Sell Apple. After all the buildup over the past couple months to last Friday's launch of the iPhone, the clearest winners are Apple's shareholders, who have seen a 35 percent jump in the stock since April. In fact, Cowen and Company estimates that the price jump has added $24 billion to Apple's enterprise value in that time period (when the stock went from $90 to $122, as of the close on Friday), meaning that the market thinks the iPhone alone is worth two-thirds the enterprise value of Motorola and one-third that of Nokia. (Enterprise value is slightly different than straight market value because it takes into account debt and other liabilities). To put that into perspective, Apple hopes to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008. Nokia is expected to sell 650 million cell phones. In a note technology Cowen sent out on Friday, it cautions:We smell a lot of retail participation in this process.That is code for the average investor, suckers like you and me who have been watching too many iPhone ads on TV as opposed to the Wall Street pros who supposedly look at the market dispassionately through the cold logic of their spreadsheets. The analysts at Cowen also made another observation. Over the past two years, Apple's stock (AAPL) and Google's stock (GOOG) have tracked each other very closely )see chart at right). But there's been an extreme divergence since April (see chart above). Since Wall Street always assumes that stocks revert to the mean, Cowen suggetsts this is... (07/01/07 09:00 PM)

16. Career Tip #12: Take Bigger Risks. If change is not happening in your organization, it’s 99% probable that the company is on the decline. And if you’re the only one who knows this, start preparing your resignation letter now. Executives who land a high level position, play it safe, and clutch onto high salaries, need to be flushed out of corporate America. They have the triple impact of holding back innovation, sucking profits from bonuses, and demotivating great people who eventually leave. And, by definition, these executives reach a plateau. Whether you’re an executive or not, I suggest you take bigger risks to move your career forward (and for fun). Make big plays. Take initiative for change at a strategic level. Bigger risks help your career because you stand out, differentiate, and accomplish great things. Whether you’re an individual contributor or manager, anyone who takes initiatives and risks can become a leader. They are the ones who are break through the next level. Their reputation is lasting and their contributions are recognized and rewarded over the long haul. Plus, the accomplishments create great soundbytes! At Dell I led a small ‘big change’ team. We were responsible for Dell’s consumer CRM strategy, customer centricity, retail competitive strategy, Hispanic marketing, customer segmentation, and other large projects. All of these initiatives were not part of day to day operations. They had to be invented, sold, implemented and finessed into company operations over time. The challenge for each of team member, from a career perspective, was to get the perspective... (01/17/07 09:00 PM)

17. Whale Season. The web hates channel conflict. Actually, it's consumers who hate it. Channel conflict is what happens when a producer doesn't want to favor one retailer over another, or gets stuck because the terms at the effective retail channel conflict with... (12/12/06 08:47 AM)

18. Patagonia's choice. The best stereo speakers don't sell very well at retail. That's because making a speaker that sounds good in the store (and is easy to sell) isn't the same thing as making one that's great to live with for years.... (08/28/06 09:03 PM)

19. The Ultimate 'Perfessional': How to Perfectly Blend Your Personal and Professional Lives. &nbsp; Tamera Duckett, 37Current business: The Pharmazie, an Oakland, Calif.-based online bath and body retail store. There are more than 300 products ...
    
    (08/25/06 09:02 PM)

20. 10 Myths About Self-Employment. "My article 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job has quickly become very popular, so I figured it would be nice to write something about the realities of self-employment as well. Since there are so many myths about self-employment (especially among lifelong employees), a good place to start would be to dispel some of those myths. I started my first business right after graduating college (I graduated in Dec 1993) and have been continuously self-employed since then. The only time I was ever an employee was during college, when I worked six months as a part-time retail sales associate." (08/10/06 09:02 AM)

21. Fridays Contract Management News and Comment (4th August 2006). (AFX UK Focus) 2006-08-04 07:40 GMT: Focus Solutions wins contract with HSBC worth 850,000 stg (Interactive Investor) LONDON (AFX) - Focus Solutions Group PLC, a provider of customer management solutions to the retail financial services market, said it has signed its first contract with HSBC bank. Strong Q2 Is The Right Medicine ... (08/04/06 09:02 AM)