SalesNotes

Phil's Forum for Independent Retailer Success

Phil Wrzesinski, President of Toy House and Baby Too, one of the 25 best independent stores in America, shares his experience and strategies in retail and marketing to help you have retail success. Your comments are welcome.

via philstoyforum.blogspot.com

Holiday-Hungry Retailers go in for Socialized Selling - OregonLive.com

By Laura Gunderson, The Oregonian December 14, 2009, 10:49AM 

When the retail going gets tough, the tough tweet. Retailers have waded deeper and deeper into social media in recent years, going viral to reveal a bit of personality or simply pump promotions. Yet this year's holiday season, retailers are taking more chances in a medium both tantalizing -- it's free and instantaneously reaches thousands -- and terrifying as companies' once highly controlled voices can be twisted, taken out of context or taunted in a fickle online community with extreme distaste for flagrant self-promotion.  The tools vary, from Twitter, a modern-day telegraph requiring its typically younger users to communicate in "tweets" of 140 characters or less, to Facebook, a slightly less edgy online bulletin board that's taken off with baby boomers in recent years. Even less Internet-savvy retailers feeling the economic crunch are ramping up blogs, cell phone texts or e-mails. That's because social media can mean moola. This holiday season, 28 percent of shoppers in a national poll said such interactive marketing influenced their gift-buying, according to market researcher ComScore Inc. Retailers listened, with 47.1 percent of online retailers polled by their trade group saying they'll increase social media use.  Any edge is needed as retailers -- many still stung from last holiday season -- fight for the few dollars consumers are willing to part with. The National Retail Federation predicts sales in November and December will total $437.6 billion, a 1 percent decline from last year's 20-year holiday season low of $441.97 billion. Twitter in, catalog out J.C. Penney Co. announced last month it had dumped its 1,000-page catalog. But the Plano, Texas-based retailer isn't giving up on getting inside customers' homes. Penney has 636,505 Facebook fans and 3,205 followers on Twitter. As many large retailers do, Penney mostly sticks to business with posts about free shipping or sales. Wal-Mart counts 270,680 Facebook followers, hundreds who vote -- literally up or down with small thumb icons -- on daily posts. Wal-Mart drew scoffs from online lurkers when it rolled out a blog supposedly written by its buyers. Several retail bloggers complained that the missives simply raved about products without giving much insight. Retail experts say joining the "community" takes more than just rewriting ad copy. Retail experts say younger customers especially want more personal content, insights and real voices, though that doesn't appear the case at teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, where more than 500,000 fans gush about favorite garments or the retailer's famously buff and bare models. "It seems to me that young people want more than just a bunch of ads," said Jennifer Black, a retail analyst based in Lake Oswego who relies on dozens of young people nationwide to get a feel for the demographic's tastes. Black follows sportswear retailer Lululemon Athletica, which began dabbling on Facebook fairly recently. The Vancouver, B.C.-based retailer told analysts last week that it has about 2,000 interactions with customers weekly and that e-mail alerts about certain store merchandise can drive more than $6,000 in corresponding sales. Its Facebook page helps the retailer save its customers a trip -- and precious gas dollars -- when something's out of stock. "Hi Megan," wrote a Lululemon employee recently, "I don't think we're going to be seeing any new colours of the Gratitude Wrap today I'm afraid ... maybe later in the week though." Making it personal Smaller retailers tend to aim for more personal messages, which they say give them an edge over larger competitors. Milagros, a Northeast Portland children's boutique, shares its owners' thoughts on books, politics and the weather with Twitter followers. Yet the Web site also allowed Milagros to be more nimble during Portland's recent cold wave: "Our too-cold-to-shop free local delivery is still happening at Milagros!" Lisa Watson, owner of Cupcake Jones, aims to elicit grins and stomach growls with tweets such as "Pumpkin pie cupcake, just consumed by yours truly ... O to the M to the G! You want one of these." Although several small firms volunteered to author her Facebook and Twitter accounts, Watson says she does it herself -- because it's fun and an integral part of her business. "As a business owner, it's a huge value to us," said Watson, who spends about 15 minutes a day on the two sites and has had customers who came in after finding her Twitter. For the first time, she'll start tweeting gift ideas this holiday season. Watson has heard businesses should communicate online two or three times a day. She may do eight one day, she said, then miss two days altogether. There is one bit of advice she does follow: "Don't constantly try to sell something." "People love to connect with the owner, especially in Portland," she said. "I feel that way, too, and I've always wanted that to come through." --Laura Gunderson  

via www.oregonlive.com

Game changing and inexpensive social media is vital to retail success. Thanks to Catherine Thoele for sharing this.

(MX) Montana Cans Fill Rate

                                                 

We are experiencing some hiccups in fill rate for Montana, particularly Elgin and Suwanee.  Both these warehouses are having rapid gains in demand due to multiple new customers ordering and/ or customers ordering massive amounts of certain colors at one time.  For Elgin, due to massive amounts of Black and White being ordered, we will start stocking out on these colors this week.  1500 more cans of each of these colors are due back in stock the week of August 31st.  In Suwanee, there's an assortment of colors that are out of stock.  Recovery was expected last week, however, due to a mis-marked pallet by the manufacture, the product was received in Elgin instead.  This product has been re-routed and is expected back in stock next week.   A 40' container is also arriving in Suwanee next week.  Lisa ex. 6620

A Budget is Key to Small-Business Success

Here is a link to a great article from the LA Times on the importance of budgeting, one of the key elements to small business success in these uncertain times.  There are huge pluses for retailers to create budgets these days. Investors like to see that a business knows where it stands. When employees, customers and investors know you have an idea about how your company could fare in the coming months and next year, they have more confidence in you and your business.

via theartdog.dreamhosters.com