Thursday, July 17, 2008
Mobile Apps shaping the way customers are shopping
Mobile technology will change the way Retailers interact with their customers, the way customers shop and the way they have options to move on if Retailers are not spot on. Check this iPhone application, called Checkout SmartShop - a shopping assistant meant to help you find online and local prices when you’re out and about shopping.
The App lets you enter barcode on your iPhone (better would be scanning or taking pictures) and find out the price and availability of the product elsewhere, online and other stores. you get to see the user reviews and store locations also with the app.
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With Apple selling 1 million iPhone 3Gs over the first weekend, you can well imagine the impact, SmartShop kind of app can have on Retailers. Question to Retailers, Do you have your mobile strategy in place??
Friday, July 11, 2008
The Yin and Yang of Retail
A very well written blog post on the relationship based on trust between Retailer and Vendors when it comes to shipping displays, running promotions and packaging.
Why would I stop a vendor from shipping displays, running promotions and changing packaging? Because I don’t trust that they know what they’re doing. I’ve seen too many hastily designed displays, too many promotions that build up like expired plaque on my planogram, and too much packaging that shows how little they understand the value of real estate. From here, it’s a short leap to understand why I’d ask for “just hand me the check book” entitlement programs. Entitlements are insurance policies against vendor marketing failures. Pay me up-front. I expect you to fail.
All this makes sense until a brand shows me that they understand what I do for a living and then proves it. Show me quantitative packaging and promotion research measured against your end users who shop in my stores. Show me how you’ll forecast it, ship it, sell it through, and then clean it up after it’s done. If you can do this, I’ll test anything you want because I’ll believe that you know what you’re doing and you won’t make a complete mess of the one thing I have that you don’t – my stores.
http://note-to-cmo.blogspot.com/2008/07/yin-and-yang-of-retail.html
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Retail
Fun article coming from WSJ today.
Excuse Me, Do You Work Here? No, I Just Need to Fold Clothes
The ranks of obsessive folders have swelled in recent years as a generation of Americans has done stints as clothing-store clerks. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, annual nonsupervisory employment in clothing and clothing-accessory stores grew to nearly 1.3 million workers in 2007, up nearly 20% from 1990. Gap Inc. says it has trained "hundreds of thousands" of Gap store employees in the art of folding since the late 1980s.
Along the way, legions of retail grads have spent countless hours neatly folding T-shirts and jeans and stacking them on tables and shelves. Now, their peculiar idea of perfection is straining marriages and leading to bizarre behavior ranging from buying clothes based on an item's foldability to straightening up sloppy displays while shopping.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Tracking Offline Conversions
Great article on ways to track offline conversions and the need for 360°multi-channel analytics. A must read for everyone who is involved in Multi-Channel retail or getting into the same.
Tracking Offline Conversions: Hope, Seven Best Practices, Bonus Tips
Don't forget to read the comments too, a whole lot of discussion and clarifications are happening on the article's comments.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
STORES Top 100 Retailers
The 2008 version of the STORES Top 100 Retailers study is out. Wal-Mart retains the first position yet again.
Wal-Mart remains the No. 1 retailer by revenues — a position it isn’t likely to cede any time soon as it alone accounts for 21.7 percent of aggregate Top 100 sales. Change is afoot, however, as CVS has vaulted into the No. 3 spot as a result of its acquisition of Caremark, reflecting the evolution of the health and wellness industry as served by drug stores. Home Depot managed to hold on to the No. 2 spot despite the depressed state of the housing market, while Kroger, the supermarket leader, slipped one place to No. 4.
Mass merchants are well represented in the Top 10, with warehouse club operator Costco Wholesale ranking fifth, Target sixth and Sears Holdings — parent of Sears, Kmart and several chains of hardware and home furnishings stores — in the eighth position. No. 7 Walgreen has been displaced as the volume leader among drug store companies, though it has been beefing up via acquisitions. Rounding out the Top 10 is SUPERVALU, which this year has its wholesale and distribution business included in total revenues.
Get the Top 100 Chart here.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Multi-Channel Customers Spend More, Less Loyal
Interesting bits coming from a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation.
While multi-channel consumers spend nearly twice as much as their single channel counterparts on average, they are also more likely to purchase from multiple providers, according to a new study from Opinion Research Corporation, an infoUSA company (NASDAQ:IUSA). Consumers who use more than a single channel to interact with an organization – for example, shopping online as well as in a company’s store – also tend to spend more than those who rely on only one channel.
“Multi-channel retailing is growing at a rate of approximately 30% a year in transaction value,” said Jill Glathar, Ph.D., Vice President and Director of the Market Planning and Development Practice at Opinion Research Corporation US. “Multi-channel customers are often the most astute about pricing, and as such, may not be the most loyal. Successfully implementing a multi-channel strategy to retain them requires an understanding of the behavior and attitude of this savvier type of customer.” This means that companies may now have to do more to keep such consumers, which can add additional costs in marketing and/or customer service.
The research also indicated that internet shopping will continue to grow, with 65% of respondents expecting to make a web-based purchase in the future, vs. 42% who use this channel now. This suggests that the internet will continue its transition from a research or browsing tool to more of an actual selling channel. Somewhat surprisingly, telephone shopping will also continue to rise, as 39% of respondents plan to use the telephone to make purchases in the future, compared to only 21% who currently do.
Additionally, the survey found that consumer’s multi-channel usage varies by industry. For example, big box retailers such as Borders and Home Depot (17%); mass merchants such as Walmart and Target (16%); department stores (14%) and restaurants (11%) have had the most success at implementing multi-channel strategies.
“The ability to successfully integrate direct and indirect channels in to a customer-centric multi-channel sales and service environment will really define the market leaders of tomorrow.” Dr. Glathar said.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Retailers and Mobile Technology
Good story on how Retailers are using Mobile Technology
Consumers are not yet using their mobile phones to do all their shopping, as some forecast, but retailers are still finding them a powerful tool.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
2008 FMI Show Session Handouts
Multiple Food retail and wholesale operators gathered at the recently conducted The FMI Show plus MARKETECHNICS and got to see the latest consumer product trends and explore strategies for satisfying customers and generating growth. For all of us who could not make it to the Show, FMI has released the presentation decks that were used. There are lot of good presentation on Retail Technology, few good presentations on how to reduce shrinkage, Data Security, Category Management among others. Something that will keep you occupied for few days atleast.
- Emergency Preparedness Update
- Organized Retail Crime — Issues and Opportunities
- Winning the War on Shrink
- Anti-Theft Technology and Fixture Updates
- Energize Your Bottom Line
- How Do Retailers and Manufacturers Win With High Gas Prices?
- Impact of the Changing Senior Market on Retailers
- Let’s Walk the Store With a New Perspective
- Succession Planning for Success
- Sustainability in Action
- What’s New in New Products
- How to Market Fresh Foods to Moms and Children
- Latin America: Evolving Formats — Changing Consumers (Presented in Spanish only)
- Next Generation of Category Management
- Pharmacy’s Connection to Health and Wellness
- Shopping for Health — The Growing Health and Wellness Market
- Understanding Local From a Consumer Perspective
- Understanding Multicultural Consumers
Ice-Cream Social, Courtesy Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart is promising low prices on ice cream and sundae toppings during the summer.
To celebrate these savings and kick off the American Summer, Wal-Mart will host what may be the world's largest ice cream social event on Sunday, May 18, complete with complimentary ice cream sundaes in more than 2,500 Wal-Mart Supercenters across the country. Wal-Mart will have on hand more than 5,000 ice cream scoopers to build an estimated 1 million free ice cream sundaes, complete with whipped cream and other toppings, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., while supplies last.
Now, 1 Million Free ice-cream sundaes is a lot of money (My guess would be USD 1 Million), but the amount of traffic the event will bring to it's 2500 supercenters will certainly result in much more dollars for the Retailer.
More here:
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=PR&Date=20080515&ID=8650858&Symbol=US:WMT
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Research: How Consumers Actually Shop For Retail Products Across Channels
From Forrester Research, How Consumers Actually Shop For Retail Products Across Channels.
While cross-channel shopping is expected to top $1 trillion by 2012, less is known about specific consumer behavior that drives customers across channels. In a recent Forrester consumer survey, we found that for considered purchases where shoppers research products first, more than half of consumers begin their research process online. Those consumers who begin their research process online are also more likely to ultimately purchase products through the online channel. Although consumers are actively cross-channel shopping for their considered purchases, retailers fail to create a seamless multichannel shopping experience. To meet the multichannel imperative, retailers should conduct frequent cross-channel reviews and competitive site assessments, educate customers with comprehensive product detail pages, and ensure that product promotions are consistent across channels.
Good Read.
