Today's Wall St Journal covers the brewing online battle between Amazon and Wal-Mart. This competition will affect independent retailers' online business success.
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June 1, 2010
June 1, 2010
Predictive marketing based upon past purchases
Below is a New York Times article from this past weekend. The article shares how major retailers are dynamically customizing their promotions based upon past customer purchases. Luxury home goods retailers could likely customize their offerings in a similar fashion. The strategy is akin to how election marketing is done. If someone drives a Prius, then they are likely to be a Democrat. As such, Democratic candidates are marketed to that person. What ...
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December 28, 2009
December 28, 2009
Wall St. Journal: As Stores Sputter, Sales Sizzle Online
As Stores Sputter, Sales Sizzle Online Dec. 15 Sets Record for Web-Site Revenue; Sears, Macy's,Other Big Retailers Lure Internet Shoppers By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER
A holiday season of Web price wars and aggressive online promotions by store-based retailers is leaving e-commerce a larger force in American retail.
While sales conducted at brick-and mortar stores are about flat this season compared with 2008, online retailing grew 4% from the ...
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December 5, 2009
December 5, 2009
Luxury makes a comeback from Fortune magazine
Jaguar, Oakley, and other brands are trying to put the 'lux' back in luxury, despite the recession.
By Suzanne Kapner, writer December 3, 2009: 9:02 AM ET NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Here's what the financial crisis sounds like at the top of the income ladder: When asked how the recession had impacted her life, one banker's wife said, "The waiting list for a Birkin bag is a lot shorter."
She was referring, of course, to the coveted Hermès handbag. Each bag is ...
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December 1, 2009
December 1, 2009
CNN: Cyber Monday sales rose 14% this year
From CNN.com today:
Cyber Monday: A lot of clicking and shopping
Report says sales rose 14% over last year and shoppers on average spent more online than they did on Black Friday.
By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com senior writer Last Updated: December 1, 2009: 10:27 AM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Did Cyber Monday outshine Black Friday this year?
Early reports suggest that Americans shopped more enthusiastically online for holiday bargains than they did in ...
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October 21, 2009
October 21, 2009
Should you offer free shipping on your website?
Please see below. This article from today's Wall St. Journal explores the expectation for free shipping when buying online. My advice to clients: - Let's better promote our free shipping offer for orders made online. - Let's e-mail a coupon to past customers either for an amount off the purchase, or something about free shipping. - Can we lower our free shipping baseline, or offer a free upgrade to quicker shipping? aka: 2 day shipping?
How good or bad is your plate for the environment?
Wal-mart is going to put green ratings on its products, and accordingly is asking suppliers to report the product's environmental impact. What if tableware companies did the same? Is a Bernardaud plate more environmental than a Pickard one?
Please see article below. The logic is three-fold: 1) it helps the planet 2) makes your product cost less 3) puts you ahead of competitors. Consumers care what a product does to the environment.
In HFN's September 10th issue, the magazine lists the top 5 selling dinnerware patterns (in the category of casual and housewares dinnerware patterns). I did a search for each of these patterns in Google. Which company do you think came up first for 3 out of these 5 patterns? Not Macy's. Not Wal-mart. The winner: Amazon.com. Amazon.com doesn't show up at the tabletop shows or even have a physical store.
So, why is our industry letting this player get all ...
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September 12, 2007
September 12, 2007
The Google-mart Effect
There is a nice article in the September 10th, 2007 issue of HFN by Allison Zisko. (Unfortunately at the time of this post they did not have this article online, otherwise I'd link to it.) I liked her term "better casual" to describe what consumers are buying. I agree the bridal market needs to rediscover tabletop...as does the general marketplace.
It's also interesting how many Americans are doing their shopping at Wal-mart. If you're a fine china brand and you don't want ...
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September 11, 2007
September 11, 2007
What the Tableware Industry Can Learn From Rupert Murdoch's Takeover of the Wall Street Journal
This past August Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. captured the crown jewel of the publishing word by purchasing The Wall Street Journal from the Bancroft family for $5 billion. What does this event have to do with us in the tabletop industry? I propose that there is a lot the industry can learn from Murdoch's coup. The main lesson is that investing in technology-and in particular online operations-is ...
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