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Internet Eyes…Who Needs Big Brother When We’ve Got Each Other?

njohnson — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 03:50:11 +0000

NPR’s On the Media has a segment today featuring a new company and service called Internet Eyes. Currently available only in the UK, the service enables anyone who signs up to act as web cam surveillance agents, observing shoppers in stores and reporting any suspicious behavior directly to the retailer. Agents can watch up to four locations at a time and can send alerts to retail establishments when they suspect shoplifting or other unwanted activity. A system of rewards and penalties for the observers encourages accurate reporting. The retailer pays a monthly fee for the service. Civil libertarians are up in arms but the service has been successfully implemented in “private” testing and is now being rolled out to all takers.

The observers are not paid anything near a full time salary. The rewards offered to observers and the process itself has been compared to online multi-player gaming. There are a lot of people with plenty of time on their hands who want to “play.” While it seems a bit creepy, perhaps the question is how does this really differ from in-store and video observation by paid security staff.

Jump over to On the Media and you can listen to the company’s founder make his case. Internet Eyes Fighting Crime From Home

Or go straight the the Internet Eyes web site and sign up today:-)

Latino buying power, social shopping, location services, and germ free clothing.

njohnson — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:33:38 +0000

Some interesting retail ideas and trends from around the web:

Hispanic buying power

Thirty major consumer, sports and services brands such as Subway, Clorox, H&R Block and the NBA have joined the Latinum Network. These companies pool their database information and cross reference Hispanic buying preferences, patterns, and demographics. The idea is to develop a deeper understanding of the Latino consumer and to discover new marketing, product and service ideas that go beyond simply translating the message into Spanish.

…this year’s census is in the books, it’s expected to show that the Latino population in the United States has topped 50 million. That’s a market worth as much as a trillion dollars. Businesses, obviously, want a piece of it.

Check out “Network helps brands reach Hispanics” at Markteplace

Social Shopping

Another great short piece from the crew at Marketplace takes a look at social shopping sites where consumers share what they are buying. Two examples, Blippy and Swipley, use credit data, volunteered by consumers to publicly track their spending. Why, you may ask, would anyone want to publish a list of everything they buy? For now, perhaps just bragging rights, but soon the more you share the more you may get as companies scan your purchase and compete.

Shouldn’t shoppers be concerned about their privacy?

Yes, says Antony Lee. He’s CEO of start-up WeShop.com, an online shopping network. Lee says consumers should be concerned — that if they give away their privacy, they’re getting something in return.

Antony Lee CEO of start up WeShop.com: I think the privacy debate is actually the wrong way around. The privacy debate shouldn’t be about what is being taken. It should be about the value of what’s being taken and who’s entitled to that value.

Lee says WeShop will let consumers trade directly with retailers — data for deals.

Check out “Social–shopping sites high in data value” at Marketplace

Location Based Services

Have you checked in on FourSquare lately? You say you haven’t played Foursquare since grade school? You need to catch up with the modern world and start using your cell phone as God intended… as a tool to check in when visiting your favorite stores, bars, restaurants, etc. The latest addition to the location craze is Be There. Urban retailers here is your chance to capture that street traffic that keeps walking by. BeThere members enable their smartphones to accept deals directly from you when they are in your neighborhood. One hour to closing and you still have ten dozen cupcakes to sell? Use Be There’s instant ad generator to broadcast your buy one get one free offer. Cool idea but it requires quite a bit of momentum on both the buying and selling side. Only available in San Francisco for now but check it out at Be There.com. Free during the beta but eventually offering a pay for performance model that retailers will appreciate.

Germ Killing Uniforms

Vestex has developed a line scrubs for medical professionals that forms a barrier against bacteria and actually kills bacteria that comes into contact with the fabric. Designed for doctors and nurses but perhaps a good idea for employees (fewer sick days!) and maybe everyone will want this fabric in their garments.

Vestagen was winning converts. Wilma Schmidt says her experience in Haiti made her a believer. “I was working in 95 to 100 degree temperatures and I would be soaked with sweat, but the uniform — inside and out — dried very quickly,” she says. “I felt protected and cool. It was amazing.”

The CNN article is here.

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

Retail Construction Lags Retail Employment

njohnson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:24:21 +0000

Retail construction continues to stagnate and slow even as overall natioinal employment, and retail jobs in particular, begin to improve. Crains Chicago Business reports a 25 year low in retail construction activity. The report focuses on retail mall development, highlighting the recent transfer to receivership of the Block 37 mall project, however it is unclear if smaller non-mall development and single site storefront retail activity is factored into the report. Downtown, urban retail may not be suffering to the same extent as suburban mall developments.

Even as retail construction continues to falter, retail employment has finally begun to improve. The U.S. Department of Labor reports job losses are slowing down. While the U.S. economy lost 22,000 jobs overall to start 2010, the retail industry added 42,100 jobs in January. Apparel, grocery and electronics lead the way with hardware and building supplies trailing.

Retail Architectural firms continue to struggle with a contraction of billing for retail design services which began in 2008. A recent AIA survey based on information gleaned from their membership, Moody’s, McGraw Hill, and others, suggests a 2010 decline in retail construction of over 17%. This compares to an overall 13% decline for all non-residential construction. Improvement of 1.8 percent is predicted for 2011 but details for the retail industry were not broken out. Once again it is difficult to determine if these statistics include small retail infill and tenent improvements or only development projects.

Some indicators point to overall economic improvement in 2010 but both residential and non-residential construction typically lag emplyment and general economic recovery. Is February too soon to start looking forward to next year?