RetailSource: Retail Design, Construction and Visual Merchandising » eCommerce

RetailMob.com Launches B2B Daily Deals for Independent Retailers. Get 50% or More Off Displays, Signs, Store Supplies, Advertising and More.

njohnson — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:34:57 +0000

RetailMob.com has launched a new B2B Daily Deals site for Independent Retailers. Store owners get 50% or more off on displays, signs, store supplies, fixtures, lighting, advertising, merchandise, professional services, employee training, business software and more. The site is dedicated to helping independent retailers be successful.

In this tough economy independent store owners need every break they can get. Many retailers are giving great discounts to their customers via sites like Goupon and Living Social. RetailMob.com is the only Business to Business Daily Deal site focused exclusively on serving the business, store operations, and visual merchandising needs of independent retailers. At RetailMob.com retailers get the deals!

RetailMob.com offers a free sign-up to retail store owners. Just go to RetailMob.com for an easy email sign-up. Get an email when great new B2B deals are available. Check it out!

Retail Store Shopping Trends for the 2011 Holiday Season

njohnson — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:38:39 +0000

Here are two different viewpoints on retail store shopping trends for the 2011 Holiday season.

Viewpoint ShopperTrak: Less 2011 Holiday in-store foot traffic

The first comes from ShopperTrak — the world’s largest provider of retail foot traffic counting, managed services and business analytics. So this is the measured, non-emotional approach based on tracking in-store activity at over 25,000 locations nationwide. Ok, brick and mortar retailers, read it and weep!

“Holiday sales and traffic historically account for approximately 20 percent of annual retail activity. With U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth disappointing in the first half of 2011, the forecast indicating holiday retail sales and traffic is a key marker of the nation’s economic health. ShopperTrak’s 3.0 percent holiday sales increase prediction follows 19 consecutive months of year-over-year U.S. retail sales growth. The expected increase is moderate compared to the 2010 holiday season’s 4.1 percent sales increase over 2009.

Conversely to sales, ShopperTrak expects foot traffic to continue decreasing through the end of 2011, due to high unemployment rates and gas prices seeing a 33 percent increase this season over last. So far this year, shoppers have visited an average of 3.10 stores per shopping trip, down from 3.19 per shopping trip in 2010 and far less than the four to five stores visited in early 2008 — prior to the recession. Converting fewer numbers of shoppers to buyers has never been more important for retailers who understand this critical retail health indicator.”

Viewpoint Trendwatching: More shoppers want the real life experience!

Now for another viewpoint, one based on the human drive to seek out interaction and experience. This is the emotional side of retail, and one we prefer to focus on because, unlike international economic struggles, it is within the power of every retailer to influence and leverage to produce more sales and customer satisfaction. Measured in a different way than ShopperTrak, Rainier Evers uses the the observations and input of over 8,000 trendwatchers worldwide to take the pulse of retail. Here is his 2011 shopping prediction for a RETAIL RENAISSANCE.

” Smart retailers are defying doom and gloom scenarios, as they realize that shopping in the real world will forever satisfy consumers’ deep rooted needs for human contact, for instant gratification, for the promise of (shared) experiences, for telling stories. Hence the flurry of new formats, technologies, capabilities, and products that now are delighting retail customers around the world.”

He carries on with four specific ways that in-store is beating online as the shopping experience of choice. Don’t miss Trend Watching. Always a great site for insight and inspiration.

Retail Social Networking Designing Retail Environments Pixels, People, and Bricks

njohnson — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:47:00 +0000

I’m not usually a fan of yet another web site “enhanced” with social networking tools, but this case study of UK menswear chain TM Levin illustrates how powerfully a highly targeted, yet richly interactive online community component can enhance both ecommerce sales and in-store customer experience. Take a look at this presentation and then visit the site to see it in action. This approach could be scaled up for large chains, or down to work for even a one shop operation.

Though implented here by FreshNetworks, a full service, social network design and implementation service, the technical aspects of this type of online / offline platform are achievable by even the smallest retailer with plug and play tools such as WordPress enhanced with the Buddypress plugin. The slides on the impact and measured results of adding the community piece to the Web Catalog / Brick and Mortar Store / Customer “triangle” are really impressive. Reading the comments and exchanges between store staff and online customers reveals how online engagement translates into store visits and brick and mortar sales. This is one of the best examples of how online, offline and social shopping can integrate and improve the customer experience and tie them more closely to the brand. Very nicely done.

Social media case study: TM Lewin

View more presentations from FreshNetworks.

Retailers Want In Store Social Shopping MeetUp With Online Social Shopping

njohnson — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 16:40:43 +0000

I love Wikipedia’s definition for social shopping:

“Social Shopping is a method of e-commerce where shoppers’ friends become involved in the shopping experience. Social shopping attempts use technology to mimic the social interactions found in physical malls and stores.”

Really? Social shopping “mimics” real world shopping?…I don’t think so.

Do we question and share our recommendations with our fellow real world shoppers? Perhaps with our closest friends and family, but even then we often keep our real opinions to ourselves. (Sure, those jeans look great on you…) Interact with total strangers? Rarely, unless we happen to be the oversharing type. Yet online, all bets are off. We opine, we rant, we criticize without mercy, we recommend what we haven’t the cash or real confidence to buy ourselves. We brag about our hauls. Some of us even deign to reveal a blow by blow account of the havoc our purchases wreak on our credit cards. (What’s all this angst about facebook privacy leaks about anyway?)

Rather than mimic, social shopping expands traditional in-store shopping. The two worlds overlap, meld and conflict. They are developing a relationship as online shopping moves beyond the internet catalog and brick and mortar stores realize the opportunities inherent in interactive technology. Case in point, Macy’s and Deisel’s smart mirror dressing rooms (video below) complete with iPad for connecting the real world to the virtual via facebook, haul post and tweets. The implications for store design are enormous and the opportunities to reconnect online shopping to real life experience are important.

So here’s the first in a series of quick looks at some of the new and upcoming Social Shopping ideas, sites, and apps. We are going to focus on how social shopping bridges the gap between online and real world shopping and what this might mean for store design, construction and visual merchandising.

The Fitting Room
One of the first points of intersection between online and offline social shopping has been the fitting room. The magic mirror concept has been adopted by several major retailers, primarily as a promotional tool. Truth is, the technology is a bit weak and the background work that goes into “loading” the mirror with overlay images is enormous. The concept makes a splash and attracts crowds but isn’t up to day in and day out, season to season use. When you think about how poorly even produced video has been integrated into store design, (with some notable exceptions such as the Apple store) it’s not surprising that the technology and integration of taggable, textable, facebookable, dynamic images is still so awkward and rudimentary.

But these are early days. The distinctions between online and offline shopping will continue to blur. Already you can get some online purchases to your door within hours, same day. Conversely, you can order from online catalogs while trying on items in the brick and mortar store. Perhaps magic mirrors will soon become a standard feature of luxury homes and “girls night out” shopping events will occur without ever revving up the Prius. How long until interactive, in-store visual merchandising and electronic “fitting” will trump shelves and racks of inventory? Fitting rooms, often a retail design afterthought, will ascend to become the defining feature of the hottest stores. It is amazing how little the average store design does to entertain, engage and detain the shoppers that walk under the nameplate. Perhaps striving to create real world environments that meet the demands created by online social shopping will lead to fundamental changes in store design.

Create a Popular Retail Facebook Fan Page by Understanding the Facebook Algorithm

njohnson — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:16:40 +0000

A popular Facebook Fan page has become a retail marketing must have. From micro boutiques to international chain stores, from the lowliest web site catalog to the highest tech ecommerce sites, Facebook popularity and fan interaction rate high on the list of marketing priorities. A whole industry has sprung up of Facebook consultants who profess to know how to make your store’s Facebook Fan page popular. How to post, what to post, when to post and how to entice friends, likes and fans. The Daily Beast’s tech guru Thomas Weber has gone one step better and created a live test of various tricks and techniques you can use to increase your popularity and visibility in the Facebook news streams of your friends and fans. His team tested specific techniques on a new Facebook account to discover 10 keys to Facebook popularity. His report give the inside scoop on:
1. How to beat Facebook’s bias against newcomers
2. Facebook’s Catch 22
3. How to show up in Facebook Top News Feeds
4. How Most Recent news feeds are censored
5. Stalking friends on Facebook won’t get you noticed
6. Friends stalking you on Facebook will increase your popularity
7. Status updates are less important than links
8. Photos and videos are even better than links
9. Does making comments on Facebook help popularity
10. Why Facebook really is like High School

While far from exhaustive or even scientific, the Daily Beast study is an excellent quick guide to practical tools and techniques retail marketers can use to build Facebook fan pages that are popular and visible. Read it here Cracking the Facebook Code

Linking Online Retail Inventory Management to the Real World

njohnson — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 16:36:56 +0000

The NY Time recently outlined how Nordstrom has accelerated its business by tying online and offline inventory together. If an item is not available or out of stock at Nordstom’s online store, the customer is offered a view of item availability at Nordstrom’s physical stores nationwide. She can pick it up at the store or have it shipped. Perhaps Nordstorm and others could go even further…

Think about it. Nordstorm has a viewer on their web site. She has perused all the little black dresses and is about to leave without buying. Why?

Case #1: Not ready to buy.
Case #2: Didn’t find the item she wanted.
Case #3: Found the item but it was out of stock.
Case #4: Didn’t like the price.

There are probably other reasons as well, however, Nordstrom has significantly increased its revenues by solving just one of these cases. Case #3, “Found the item but it was out of stock.” Just think what could be gained in revenue and customer satisfaction by solving some of the other cases.

Here is a simple solution for case #2, “Didn’t find the item they wanted”. As the customer is leaving the Nordstrom online catalog they are presented with merchandise from other retailers in the same category (little black dresses). Heresy you say? No, it’s called affiliate marketing. Why let that customer go on to another site and buy the dress there without any compensation? Better to help her find the item on a competing site and take a commission on the sale.

Another model is to connect customers to resellers of the desired merchandise. Amazon style integration of resellers offering new and used merchandise options solves case #4 where price was the determining factor.

Hats off to Nordstom for better serving the customer by solving the challenge of online / offline inventory integration but there remain many unexploited opportunities for creative selling both online and in the stores. All those marketing dollars spent and so many missed opportunities to serve and profit from the eager customers they attract.

See the New York Times Article “Nordstorm Links Online Inventory to Real World” here.

Retail Observation and Store Surveillance Sells

njohnson — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:51:40 +0000

That camera in the ceiling, red light blinking at you as you search the rack for the perfect graphic tee…. it isn’t watching to see if your are stealing…. it’s watching to see how you shop! While loss prevention surveillance is still an important part of retail operations, in-store cameras are often focused on catching shopping habits rather than shoplifters.

Perhaps most well know is Paco Underhill and his Envirosell crew. Since the 80’s they have been researching, cataloging, tracking and evaluating shopping habits. Now they have taken the observers with clipboards out of the aisle and placed them behind video screens in adjacent rooms or on the other side of the country. Much like unmanned military aircraft, they hover overhead, collect data, formulate plans and ATTACK! An overstatement perhaps, but they certainly do collect very specific data about how you shop, use the data to formulate plans to alter your shopping behavior and ultimately target you more specifically as a shopper.

While this process currently occurs over an extended time frame (assortment planning, store fixture remodels, visual resets) it’s conceivable that observers could one day have tools (weapons) to deploy immediately to adjust your shopping behavior and interest in real time. Here are some techniques that we might see.

Retargeting: You entered the store, pause for a minute to run your hand over the stack of cashmere sweaters on the front table, hold one up to yourself and look at the price tag. Interested but not sold. As you move about the store, video screens in other displays keep showing you images of those cashmere sweaters, (always on beautiful people like you of course!) This technique is used extensively in online display advertising, presenting you with ads about products you viewed on other sites. A good store associate will do something similar as they keep bringing you that cashmere sweater as part of an ensemble of other items to try on but observers could target more shoppers.

Customization: As you enter the store, your phone identifies you to the store’s WiFi system. Instantly, your interests, shopping history and other personal information are gathered from Facebook, Blippy, and your favorite online retailers. As you move about the store you are presented with a changing array of visual, olfactory, aural and physical cues that highlight and entice you to select items the data says you are predisposed to buy. Perhaps this is an automated process but more likely highly skilled observers in distant “observation centers” would watch your movements and use the collected data on their screen to direct complex store fixtures and displays to create a customized experience for you. (Perhaps these observers would work on commission…)

Collaboration: Observers might share information about your activity in one store with observers and sales staff in another. Good information leading to a sale, perhaps a tip about your interest in cashmere, might earn a commission or other compensation for the supplier of the information. Information about your shopping habits from many stores might be combined to create a more detailed and effective profile of your interests and buying habits.

Eavesdropping: We generally think of the “eye in the sky” type of observation via overhead cameras capturing visual images. Observation will surely expand beyond this rudimentary level to include watching facial expressions and listening to personal conversations. Cameras and microphones in store fixtures will capture your reaction, emotions and conversations at every display station. Talking with your friend about that dress you saw on your favorite show last night? A sales associate carrying something in the same color or style might approach you. How did she know? If this sounds creepy, or if you say you would never allow a store to listen in on your private conversations, then you had better try and close that Facebook account and stop using Gmail. Those are just two examples of companies that actively listen to your conversations and track your activities so that they can offer you goods and services tailored to your interests. If we allow it online, why not allow it in the store? Biometric software might identify your look of horror as you read the price tag on an item and instantly offer you a discount if you purchase before leaving the store.

Group Think: On a less personally invasive note, music, lighting and graphics are tools every retailer uses to set the mood and style of their retail environment. Through observation of the mix of customers in the store at any given moment, these tools could be manipulated to increase sales. The mix of ages, genders and even ethnicities in the store at any moment might be used by observers to alter music mixes and volumes, lighting levels and focus areas, graphic components, text sizes and images. Prototypes are very static in many ways and reacting to the mix of people in the store more dynamically could increase the enjoyment and interest level of shoppers and consequently drive sales.

Do observational technologies and initiatives promise shoppers a loss of privacy or more opportunities and a more engaging shopping experience? Could automated and remote responses to customer activity in a store trump the power of well-trained and motivated in-store staff? Does crossing the threshold into a store waive your right to privacy or do you retain your rights until you opt-in to being observed and approached. These are important questions both in online commerce and in the brick and mortar retail environments. What do you think?

And by the way, dont miss this NYT article…

As Mr. Underhill pointed out, people are taped dozens of times each day doing routine chores like pumping gas. Cameras, it seems, are pervasive. Stores are merely the latest frontier.

“We live our lives surrounded by them,” he said.

Q4 Ecommerce Spending Up 3%

njohnson — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:18:32 +0000

Here it is straight from the horse’s…comScore’s… mouth

RESTON, VA, February 9, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its Q4 2009 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending reached $39 billion, up 3 percent versus year ago. Total retail e-commerce spending reached $129.8 billion for the full year 2009, marginally below the previous year’s total of $130.1 billion.

Happy days are here again! Unless of course you are a brick and mortar retailer. However isn’t everyone an online retailer now in one form or another Yahoo! Stores, Shopify, Amazon Craigslist, eBay etc etc…

Lots of interstesting stats and the full press release is here