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Industry Insights brings the latest trends, acquisitions and previews of upcoming conferences and events to retailers’ desktops. This section enables store managers to learn new strategies related to sales and tips on optimizing inventory, merchandising, allocation and more. Subscribe to the feed and stay in touch with the latest retail happenings.
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Written by Alicia Fiorletta
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Friday, 15 June 2012 00:00 |
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As the smartphone’s popularity intensifies among consumers, many retailers are focused on applications and mobile-optimized sites to increase engagement with mobile-savvy shoppers. However, Short Message Service (SMS) is a technology available in all cell phones, making text message marketing a tactical way to increase mobile presence and build buzz around new products, offers and campaigns.
To optimize customer acquisition, retailers must take an integrated approach to SMS, according to a white paper from Cellit, a mobile marketing and CRM solution provider and division of digital engagement company ePrize. Merchants can boost conversion rates by 23.3% with concise SMS announcements, such as seasonal promotions and other short-term offers, in conjunction with longer initiatives that span and develop over several years, according to the Cellit report. Cellit’s study results also indicated that the SMS strategy produced redemption, revenue and margin rates approximately six to eight times higher than the norm for other channels.
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Written by Lorna Pappas, Contributing Editor
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Thursday, 14 June 2012 08:05 |
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Private label continues to grow in the U.S. as today’s more cost-conscious and technologically empowered consumers question the value of their shopping baskets. Overall sales of U.S. store brands rose 3.9% in 2011, compared to 0.6% for national brands in the same time period, the PLMA/The Nielsen Company, reported in a white paper produced by Planet Retail and Trace One.
Some of the factors affecting the boost in private label include food price inflation and financial constraints, prompting grocery retailers to scramble for new ways to squeeze costs from their businesses. Additionally, grocers are attracted by the value-added attributes and profit opportunities offered by private label.
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Written by Alicia Fiorletta
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Monday, 11 June 2012 08:11 |
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The continual growth of cross-channel shopping strategies has left the retail industry at a crossroads. Consumers are becoming savvier, utilizing the web, social media and their mobile devices to find the best deals, review items and offer real-time insights on their in-store and online shopping experiences. As a result, retailers are approaching “panic mode” to keep pace, according to Dennis Allen, Worldwide Sales Lead at Informix Warehouse Accelerator, an IBM company.
“Retail is at an inflection point: the market is changing as it increases its focus on the customer,” Allen said in a recent webinar for Retail TouchPoints. “But experts agree that the leaders managing this change and creating more interactive, data-intensive customer relationships will drive the market past that inflection point.”
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Written by Fatima D. Lora
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Friday, 08 June 2012 07:06 |
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 Retailers must keep pace with consumers’ demands to provide a compelling and informative customer experience ― while closely balancing those demands with precise inventory levels.
Surprisingly, retailers lose $818 billion annually worldwide due to out-of-stocks and deeply discounted overstocks, according to a report released by IHL Group, a research and advisory firm. Even more alarming, the report said, this statistic is increasing by nearly $50 billion annually worldwide as emerging economies expand beyond the infrastructure to handle retail growth efficiently.
On May 7, 2012, IHL released these findings in its 2nd Annual Inventory Distortion study, sponsored by Tyco Retail Solutions. IHL Group defines inventory distortion as the combined cost of out-of-stocks and lost sales, and overstocks that retailers must discount deeply to sell.
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Written by Lorna Pappas, Contributing Editor
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Tuesday, 05 June 2012 08:25 |
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This is Part II of Retail TouchPoints’ multi-part feature investigating trends and developments in social media analytics and the business intelligence the technique provides. This segment focuses on insights from several leading retailers, based on their current, real-world social media analytics applications. It also includes a supplier-provided overview of basic analytics techniques. Starting with RTP’s June 12 newsletter, subsequent installments will reveal similar insights from other suppliers and retail leaders.
 Social media marketing isn’t new, but the sophisticated analytical tools that reveal — from online conversations — what customers need, want and feel are becoming more granular and competitively necessary every day. From simple monitoring to retailers’ full-scale, co-created dialogue with brand advocates across social channels, the power of these solutions is transforming those who use it wisely from retailers to Me-Tailers.
“There is a treasure trove of useful information hidden in the hundreds of millions of social media conversations occurring online every day,” Tracy Chu, head of Walmart’s social media analytics efforts, told Retail TouchPoints. “Retailers who know how to listen to and gauge these conversations will get ahead of consumer trends in planning their product assortments, including new products to introduce and supply to secure.”
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