- Coupon offers lead to highest engagement on Facebook (Mashable)
- Why Everyday Low Pricing Might Not Fit J.C. Penney (Businessweek) and Why JCPenney’s ‘No More Coupons’ Experiment Is Failing (Time)
- American Consumers Reducing Discretionary Spending on Most Categories (Empathica)
- Canadian retailers brace for more cross-border shopping pain (Globe and Mail)
- Starbucks brews loyalty with mobile payments (MSN Money)
- Consumers delaying shopping until Memorial Day Weekend at all-time high (Chain Store Age)
- Convenience & Mobile Ads Rank as Top Drivers of Mobile Phone Shopping Activities (IAB)
- Lifestyle Retail Centers Launching a Comeback (Retail Traffic)
- Apple Store’s Secret Sauce: 5 Steps of Service (Forbes)
- U.S. e-commerce sales increased 15.4% to $53.2 billion in Q1 (US Dept of Commerce)
- Millennials: Young, Broke, and Spending on Luxury (The Fiscal Times)
- American brands exporting luxury wares to Brazil (Bloomberg)
- Will mild winter mean summertime blues for retailers? (Reuters)
- Wal-Mart’s Slow Expansion of Small-Format Stores Gives Rivals Running Room (WSJ)
- Why Mobile Shopping Is Not Mobile Buying (MobileInsider)
- Brand Fail: Marketers struggle to break through the wall of consumer criticism (Adweek)
- Consumer preference for rebates vs instant discounts is growing (Parago)
- The End Of The Retail World As We Know It (Retailomania)
- How big-box retailers are localizing stores with Facebook (AdAge)
Big Weekend Reading List
Published May 18, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: consumer news, consumer trends, retail news, retail trends
Mid-Week Retail Reads
Published May 16, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: consumer news, consumer trends, retail news, retail trends
- Francesca’s CFO tweets himself out of a job (Houston Chronicle)
- Malls Turn to Play Areas to Get Moms to Shop (WSJ)
- Teens & Tweens More Engaged When Purchasing Beauty Products (NPD Group)
- Study Shows Thin Models Don’t Make Most Women Want To Shop (NY Mag)
- JC Penney Plans Ads to Better Explain New Pricing Strategy (AdAge)
- Mobile Phone Shoppers Show Growing Preference for Text Marketing (eMarketer)
- 1962: The Year That Forever Changed Retail (Bloomberg)
- The future of customer support: Outsourcing is so last year (Economist)
- Research Shows Consumers Choose Brands the Same Way They Choose People (RCG)
- Plus-size line meets a passion for fashion at The Limited (STORES)
- Study Reveals Tablets are Emerging as the Consumer Device of Choice (Adobe)
- Social Shopping Platform Is Like Twitter For Fashion Advice (PSFK)
- There’s Retail Magic in Silicon Dust: America’s Most Connected Retailers (US News & World Report)
- With Redesign, Social Shopping Becomes Fab.com’s Main Focus (TechCrunch)
- Google’s Tim Reis Reveals ‘Mobile Playbook’ for Marketers (OnlineMediaDaily)
- State of the Appnation: A Year of Change & Growth in U.S. Smartphones (NielsenWire)
- Etsy Seeks Scale without Losing Its ‘Street Fair’ Aesthetic (Knowledge@Wharton)
source: Adobe
The 10 Best Retailers to Work For In America
Published May 16, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: retail trends
For 15 years, Fortune has annually published the ‘100 Best Companies to Work For‘ in America.
Below, we take a look at the top 10 American retailers to work for – those companies that have consistently made the list by treating their employees as their most important asset. It’s no coincidence that all of these chains are known for their stellar customer service and are among the best-performing in their respective sectors.
Wegman’s Food Markets
2012 Overall Rank: 4
5-YR Avg Rank: 3.6
Employees: 41,717
Voluntary Turnover: 4%
1-YR Job Growth: 5%
Most common job (salaried): Store Department Manager – $56,040/yr
Most common job (hourly): Store Customer Service – $29,286/yr
With 2011 sales of $6.2 billion, this 79-store grocery chain is the 55th-largest private company in the U.S. What truly distinguishes Wegman’s is its people, though – the company has made the ‘Best Companies to Work For’ list every year since its inception in 1998 and has never had a layoff, one of only 3 American companies that can claim both.
If the company has to close a store, eliminate a department or position, it has always managed to keep the employees and retrained them for new positions saying they would rather have trained staff than have to invest in new hires later. As a testament to how great a place it is to work, 11% of the workforce has been with the company for more than 15 years.
Each year every employee gets a holiday greeting card from the Wegman family, who still own the grocery chain.
Wegman’s has been ranked in the top 10 every year since 2003 and in the top 5 places to work each year since 2005, when it was ranked #1. Continue reading ‘The 10 Best Retailers to Work For In America’
Tuesday Reading List
Published May 15, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: consumer news, consumer trends, retail news, retail trends
- Mobile Devices Transforming Women’s Shopping Experiences (Total Beauty Media Group)
- Walmart Shoppers Indicate ‘Everyday Low Prices’ Extremely Important, but Cross-shopping Still Prevalent (ClickIQ)
- Why Most Successful Branding Still Happens Offline (WSJ)
- Nordstrom in Fashion with Social Media & Mobile Tech (US News & World Report)
- Emerging International Markets Pique Interest for Retail Expansion (Retail Traffic)
- American Express Leverages Spending Data For Mobile Deals You Actually Care About (Fast Company)
- Changing Behaviors of Today’s Cost-Conscious Grocery Shoppers (MaxPoint Interactive)
- Fashion Executives on Fast Company’s ‘Most Creative People In Business’ List (Racked)
- Where Dollar Stores Are Still Not Welcome (Time)
- Target’s Little Shop-in-Shop Of Surprises (MarketingDaily)
- Location, location, location: Where to put digital signage in retail (Retail Customer Experience)
- 12 Ways Businesses Can Prepare for Mobile Commerce (Mashable)
- The New Weapon in Online Sales: Traditional Stores (WSJ)
- For U.S. Consumers, Different Stores Mean Different Smartphone Shopping Behavior (NielsenWire)
source: NielsenWire
Retail Sales Barely Budge in April as Early Spring Buying Spree Fades
Published May 15, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: consumer confidence, consumer spending, retail sales, retail trends
Retail sales in the U.S. barely rose in April, as the boost from an unseasonably warm start to the year faded and the early spring buying spree seems to have pulled sales forward.
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that Advance Estimates of U.S. Retail and Food Services sales for April increased just 0.1% over the prior month to a seasonally adjusted $408.0 Billion, slightly less than consensus estimates for a 0.2% gain, while sales increased 6.4% compared to the year-ago period. Year-over-year, this was the 30th straight gain after 14 consecutive months of declines.
Total sales excluding Autos were up 5.9% in April from the year-ago period and rose 0.1% from the prior month, while total sales less Autos and Gas Stations showed a 6.0% year-on-year increase and also rose 0.1% month-on-month following a 0.8% gain in March.
Though 9 of 13 categories showed increases over the prior month, strength was muted – gainers were led by: Nonstore Retailers (+11.0% YoY, +1.1 MoM), Miscellaneous Store Retailers (+8.5% YoY, +0.8% MoM), Furniture & Home Furnishing Stores (+7.6% YoY, +0.7% MoM), Auto & Parts Dealers (+8.4% YoY, +0.5% MoM) and Health & Personal Care Stores (+4.4% YoY, +0.6% MoM).
Online sales continue to significantly outperform overall retail – comScore reported that e-commerce sales jumped 17% in the first quarter to $44.3 billion (govt. figures will be reported Thursday morning). This was the tenth straight quarter of positive year-over-year growth and sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
Unseasonably warm weather throughout the winter and early spring, as well as Easter falling 2 weeks earlier this year than last seems to have led to much earlier seasonal buying Continue reading ‘Retail Sales Barely Budge in April as Early Spring Buying Spree Fades’
