Weekly Retail News Roundup

Black Friday Advantage, Cyber Monday, Increase Holiday Sales, Mobile Shopping’s First Christmas

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small retail newsAlthough many small retailers have offered early Holiday promotions at the point of sale, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are quickly approaching. The weekly roundup is full of Holiday Joy, featuring articles on using Black Friday to your advantage, what retailers are expecting for Cyber Monday, two imperative tips to help increase your Holiday profits and mobile shopping first Christmas. The kick off to the Holiday shopping season is almost here…make sure you’re prepared to impress your customers.

1. Black Friday 2009: It is Time to Shop for Your Small Business Needs – A different take on what Black Friday should mean for small retailers. With many large retailers slashing prices on products that will improve your small business performance why not take advantage of them. Take the time to look at the deals and maybe you could purchase that new computer to run your point of sale software more efficiently.

2. Retailers Make Push for ‘Cyber Monday’ – Will you be in the 87% of retailers that will offer a Cyber Monday promotion? Although some people debate whether there’s a real advantage to Cyber Monday, you will have to agree that sales do increase online and consumers are looking for them on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

“While it may not be the biggest online shopping day on the calendar, it’s still online retail’s alarm clock, drawing 33% more shoppers than the rest of November’s average.”

3. Email marketing will make a difference in your holiday business – If you’re not already collecting customer email address it’s a perfect time to start. Email marketing is a free, targeted way to announce your small retail Holiday sale promotions to proven customers. This article mentions a free “Holiday in a Bag” kit from Campaigner that features email templates and graphics, holiday e-cards, and 100 tips for holiday marketing including instructions for optimizing deliverability of email marketing.

4. Training for unit-level success for holiday 2009 – Having highly trained, helpful employees during this shopping season is extremely important if you want to retain customers. This article gives some great tips on how and what to train your employees on to assure customer service satisfaction.

5. Mobile Shopping’s First Christmas – Shopping from your mobile phone was practically non-existent last year but as technology has advanced it has brought Mobile Shopping its first Christmas. In this helpful article form Business Week, Paula Rosenblum explains why mobile shopping is here to stay.

POS Review, BW Chooses Small Retailers, Holiday Survival Kit, Key Holiday Promotion, Learning From Apple

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Small Retail Holiday TipsAs the Holidays approach it seems that is the only thing that is on everyone’s mind. Small retailers, big box stores, consumers and experts all have a prediction for the “Holiday Sale” season. This being so, you will see many articles featured in the upcoming weekly roundups about the Holidays but be sure to keep tuned in as many of these will be tips and suggestions for small retailers. This week we start off with a genuine point of sale software review which caught my eye since it’s about our featured sponsor. The next is a follow up article from Business Week naming the three small businesses they will be following during the next month. This week the must read is the Holiday Survival Guide put out by the National Retail Federation and that’s followed by a great suggestion about promotion to your customers. We end the weekly roundup with a few things all retailers could learn from Apple.

1. MerchantOS – Point of Sale Goes to the Cloud – As I said above this is an honest review I found posted by a brick and mortar PC shop that recently decided to go with MerchantOS as their POS software solution. Chris, the owner of Charm City Networks explains why he needed a point of sale solution for his business, why he chose this solution and how the entire process went.

2. Introducing: Tales of Holiday Retail – Last month we featured an article by Business Week stating that they were looking for a few small retailers to follow during the next eight weeks of the Holiday shopping season. Well the results are in…read the article to see the three small retailers that BW will be following.

3. 2009 Holiday Survival Kit – This is actually a downloadable pdf file that is provided by the National Retail Federation (NRF). They cover past holiday sales, sales by sector, theft/fraud, advertising, gift cards and much more. Go on over and grab your free copy, its well worth a couple clicks of your mouse.

4. Shop Local: Authenticity as a Key Holiday Promotion – Another great article by John Tozzi over at Business Week. Ever think of focusing on Thanksgiving instead of Christmas? It’s not to late, find out how to boost your Holiday sales early. Use the buy local movement and giving some authenticity.

“Independent brick-and-mortar retailers have a key advantage over big box competitors: Their stores are rooted in their communities. Small business owners can leverage that sense of place and connection to people who live there in a way that’s very hard for Target or Best Buy to replicate.”

5. Five things any retailer can learn from Apple – I first thought WHAT? Then I thought HMMM…this is good. The Retail Customer Experience again delivers a clever, useful article on five lessons you could learn from Apple.

New POS Printer, Mobile POS from Partner Tech, What Mobile Payments Mean, 7 Small Retailer Recession Tips, 85% will Holiday Shop Online

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iStock_000010196243XSmallNew point of sale products highlight our weekly round up this week. A POS printer with a easy to use LCD screen and a new mobile handheld POS system. The introduction of more mobile solutions for the point of sales brings us to what mobile payments will mean for the marketing world. The economy is still slow for many consumers so we feature an article with 7 tips to market to families during the recession. Then we end will the revelation that 85% of consumers will shop online during this holiday season.

1. New Citizen Printer for More Efficient POS Applications – Citizens Systems Europe has released a new point of sale printer that features an LCD screen for easy configuration and delivery of messages. Read our full review of the CT-S801 Thermal Printer.

2. New Handheld Thermal Makes Order Taking a Simpler Process – Partner Tech has released the new OT-100 handheld ordering terminal or mobile POS. It’s a wireless touch screen point of sale aimed at the hospitality industry but could have potential for all retail environments. The system features a flexible operating system, a 4.3” touch screen and Wi-Fi connectivity. It’s even small enough to place in your pocket.

3. What Mobile Payments Will Mean for the Marketing World – Although the Us has been slow to adapt to mobile payments the question still arises as to what will happen to marketing once a consumer uses a mobile phone for purchases instead of their credit card. Starbucks has introduced the use of mobile payments at the POS allowing iPhone users to download a special app that delivers customer loyalty incentives and re-fill a gift card. Perhaps small retailers will be able to learn form the marketing techniques of Starbucks and the 20% of Japanese consumers that have been using mobile payments over the last four years.

4. ISME 09: Seven tips for marketing to families during a recession – Small retail businesses seem to feel the most effects from a downed economy. Here are 7 tips to marketing to families, particularly women during the time of recession. Women will still shop and buy things that their families need but they tend to shop differently when money has become tight.

What’s different? A drastic uptick in private label brand usage, more coupon clipping, and more online research of purchases before getting in the car to head to the store.

5. Consumers say holiday budgets are tight, 85 percent will shop online – After reading this article and looking at the survey results you better hope you have an online presence this holiday season. Even a small retail shop can benefit form having their store or prices online. Connecting with customers online will be crucial during the holidays as 57% of those surveyed said they will shop around online to find the best deal. If your small retail shop is not on the world wide web you could miss out on important holiday sales.

Future Point of Sale, Mobile Coupons and POS, Small Retail Customer Care, Direct Mail Effectiveness for Small Retailers, Branding and Marketing Trends

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Point of SaleOur first feature this week in the roundup is a video demonstration of Intel’s new POS kiosk. The concept is simply amazing although I think shoppers may spend way to long during the checkout process. Our second pick this week is a company named ChaCha that is offering an outstanding mobile coupon service that would be ideal for small retailers. There’s one catch you can’t have an outdated point of sale machine but it may be worth investing in an upgraded POS service with the new upcoming mobile technology. Third on the list this week is an extensive article about direct response through customer care. This has to be the most informative customer service advice I have ever read…don’t miss that one. We then feature an great from the Specialty Retail Expert about ways direct mail can still help small retailers succeed. Ending the roundup this week is the top 10 brand and marketing trends for the upcoming year. I thought this might help some specialty retailers out there…

1. Intel Point-of-Sale Kiosk Skips Sales Personnel But Not Fitting Rooms – The future of Point of Sale is here…checkout what Intel is calling the ultimate customer checkout experience. Personally I think there are way to many choices but it’s still great.

2. ChaCha Unveils Coupon Service – ChaCha is a text and voice based mobile search service that has recently added a coupon services. User can get discount coupons and special offers from their favorite local retailer. They plan to roll this service out across 20 markets over the next year. What a great opportunity to bring in local customers that will be loyal customers.

3. Driving Response Through Customer Care – This is an incredible article about how to make sure your customers are always happy customers. After all isn’t that what makes your business is a happy customer? This article covers simple and extensive things that may not have even crossed your mind. Read this for small retail success!

4. Direct Mail is Not Dead – Many companies have resorted to online marketing only through email, social media, websites, ect. According to this article they are missing out on a great chance to potential customers. The author lists four cost effective ways to make direct mail work for the small retail industry.

5. Top 10 Brand and Marketing Trends for 2010 – This is a great list of 10 trends that are sure to help develop a strategic retail plan over the next year. It’s always smart to know what new an emerging concepts are hitting the market.

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