Winda asked:


I am looking for tips on how to motivate a retail sales staff. They do receive commission on sales in addition to their pay. Also does anyone know of a useful forum for retail sales managers?

Amy

Mike F asked:


when you look up the book value of a car it gives you two different prices.what is the difference.

Lynn

Jake nova asked:


I am going to start work at an local sport check.and iam doing an sale person postion,iam saleing in the cholves apartment to customers ,iam being pay by commison and $7.50
I like to make an lot of money at this,any body kown an little something about this ,Help me please.

Jesse

katieluvsbags asked:


I really like this handbag, but don’t know if it is worth almost $1,000. Does anybody have any an opinion?

Anne

Joseph Pratt asked:


As an employee of an online advertising agency, ICMediaDirect.com, I’ve got a sweet vantage for observing the latest online retail numbers tumble in - and they’re spectacular. Third Quarter online retail sales were up almost 27% from the same period last year, while these first 20 days of January were up 33% from the same period in 2005. This surge is neither cyclical nor an aberration, but indicative of the continuing and permanent shift of retail consumers to ecommerce instead.

Naturally this is great news for online advertisers and retailers. But it’s important to remember that ecommerce has outgrown its infancy. The big players in online retail have established themselves and seem to know what they’re doing. It is important for advertising agencies and marketers to understand the current success and mindset of online retailing. Keen insight will be critical in recognizing and pitching opportunity to advertisers in the upcoming year.

Okay, retailers know better than anyone how much money consumers are spending over the Internet. They are realizing profits in their respective fields. They also recognize a maturation process and that the net number of new e-commerce customers will tail off to non-growth levels. Some estimates predict this flat lining by 2010.

However, there is still important growth with maturity - and that growth is in the average amount of money spent per online customer. Instead of trying to grab new customers, retailers are bending over backwards to retain existing customers. This is the value play. Existing customers are being cultivated. The retailer, be it Nordstrom’s or Wal-Mart, wants the customer feeling at home and free of anxiety within their website.

Instead of trying to be all things to all people online, online retailing efforts of late are geared towards complementing their “brick and mortar” locations. By complement, I mean soaking up as much nitty-gritty merchandising as possible - and letting store locations double as entertainment or advertising hubs. In order to do this, though, the website must be a comfortable zone for shoppers.

Target is a fine example of a company whose mission is to build customer loyalty on and offline. Their online site regularly offers “insider” savings not mentioned in print. I only know because their website announces this. The design here is to build warm online association with the customer and the brand’s website.

There is an overarching value being placed on the online customer today because online loyalty equals retail gold. Profit margins of today remain important as ever, but a future where today’s loyalty means increased spending tomorrow is truly precious.

This bedrock is being built today. Amazon.com had a huge holiday season - they cited particularly strong sales in jewelry and cosmetics. Jewelry is going through a surge of online sales growth, up 29% over last year. This is another example of a fundamental shift; this is jewelry - not a fad, but a reflection of consumer trust in the Internet.

Moreover, of the top 50 online advertisers measured in media value (according to TNS Media Intelligence) none are expressly jewelers. Does this spell opportunity for an online jeweler? Undoubtedly. And we’ll see huge online advertising efforts here in upcoming years, if not months.

Also of note: 15 of the top 50 online advertisers, in terms of media space purchased, are financial companies. Another dozen retail nothing. And there’s only one travel company, Expedia.com, in that top 50. This is pretty interesting because travel is the largest sector of retail business done online.

Of course, most advertising money is going into paid search advertising. However, the grumbling is growing amongst advertisers within the PPC world. With such developments like Google’s Variable Term-Pricing (or, the death of free-market PPC on Google) and big business customers (like eBay) flooding the format, PPC has become a much more expensive proposition. Advertisers will be looking once again at the more traditional online advertising means. We will be ready.

And what will prospective advertisers see when venturing off the paid search path? They’ll see Classmates.com and the University of Phoenix among the very top spenders in pop-ups and banners. Well, I’ve got news - these companies, whose advertising means can’t compete with the bigger retailers, haven’t been throwing their money away. It works.

And this, folks, is an advertising void; call it an arbitrage play within advertising. E-retail is going through the roof and the advertising dollars haven’t been following suit into all the effective media channels.

Retailers are going to merge their online advertising formats. Some ads here, some ads there - all bases must be covered. When online customer spending is up 27%, advertisers shouldn’t concentrate all efforts into a single format. I can’t speak for other agencies, but ICMediaDirect.com is feeling an up tick in the traditional formats of online advertising.

Online retailing has evolved. The Internet has gone from a cheap place of doing business to a venue where a premium is placed on customers. A seller has to do more than offer an agreeable selection. Their job is to create a comfortable and trusting interactive space, and in doing so, they’ll need to sell themselves through advertising online.



Claudia

gomanyes562 asked:


When you buy a large package of something (say, a crate of water bottles) and the individual units say “not labeled for retail sale”, is this a legally enforceable requirement, or just the desire of the manufacturer?

Elsie

jinxie1 asked:


Are POS systems worth the money for a small potatoes business? And has anyone ever heard of the Uniwell brand for POS applications?

Gloria

Money Morning asked:


By William Patalon III

Executive Editor

Money Morning/The Money Map Report

If it’s good enough for Wal-Mart…

Looks like the discounting model pioneered by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailing giant, will make its way to some rather unlikely high-end retailers: Barney’s New York Inc. and Neiman Marcus Inc. have announced significant price reductions (up to 75%) over the next few days to avoid a disastrous holiday shopping season.

For optimists, the message here is that all hope for holiday retail sales is not yet lost. A National Retail Federation survey showed that only 47% of consumers have finished their holiday shopping and another 19% have not even started. As a dismal 2008 comes to a close, the last die-hard eternal optimists are calling for a year-end Santa Claus Rally, as the government bailouts and U.S. Federal Reserve actions give investors some hope for 2009 and beyond.

But such blind optimism too often ignores a key point or two. The Dallas-based Neiman Marcus, for instance, just announced that its third-quarter earnings plunged 84% because of its aggressive discounting, the Dallas Morning News reported. And since the discounting will continue, so will the decline in profits, the high-end retailer conceded.

With even luxury retailers discounting to try and salvage something from the holiday shopping season, the outlook for lackluster sales and even-more-lackluster earnings feeds into an already dour outlook for the U.S. economy.

And if that doesn’t squelch the optimists’ ardor, then a looming revision in the third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) – last reported as minus 0.5% – will almost certainly bring them back to the realities of the sluggish economy.

It may even force those optimistic economists to finally say: “Bah Humbug.”

That GDP report is due out tomorrow (Tuesday).

Market Matters

Though perhaps it’s wishful thinking, there are some analysts who point out that one or more of any number catalysts could jump-start the economy and the financial markets in the New Year, putting the past few miserable months in the rearview mirror. They argue that the trillions of dollars in bailout money pumped into the financial system should finally start to provide badly needed liquidity; the Fed seems intent to do “whatever it takes” to reverse, or at least blunt, the current downturn (even if runaway inflation may be a repercussion down the road); an “Obamanomics” stimulus plan could create new jobs, while enhancing the country’s aging infrastructure; risk-free Treasury yields at 0.00% should start to look less and less attractive, prompting investors to look into stocks and non-government bonds again. Just a few last minute items to add to the holiday investment-shopping wish list.

Sadly, Bernie Madoff saw to it that his investors will have a holiday season to forget as the list of prominent victims grew each day: Real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman, U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., Hollywood movie mogul Steven Spielberg, Spanish bank Banco Santander SA (ADR: STD), France’s BNP Paribas SA, Nomura Holdings Inc. (ADR: NMR), and many charitable foundations and non-profit organization were among the people and institutions victimized.

Plenty of finger-pointing has been directed at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to uncover some rather obvious signs of wrongdoing through the years. As Money Morning reported even before the official announcement was made, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama tapped FINRA Chief Executive Officer Mary L. Schapiro to head the SEC during this time of turmoil. Congrats on the appointment, I guess?

The Detroit Big Three automakers received early holiday cheer as the U.S. Treasury Department will release $17.4 billion of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money in return for potential equity stakes and other concessions from management and unions. General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC will be the recipients, while Ford Motor Co. (F) pursues – for now – the go-it-alone strategy. Meanwhile, Chrysler will be shutting down all of its North American production plants for at least a month and also will begin charging dealers large fees on unsold cars that remain on their lots after prolonged periods. In perhaps a sign of things to come, a consortium of 14 companies – including 3M Co. (MMM) and Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) – have asked for $1 billion in government funding to begin manufacturing state-of-the-art batteries for electric cars. The move is reminiscent of action taken by computer chip firms decades ago that helped make the industry more competitive domestically. (Johnson Controls also announced last week that it would invest $90 million to open a lead-acid-battery-production plant in China’s green-power energy industrial center in Changxing Economic Development Zone of Zhejiang province, Alibaba.com reported).

Energy traders disregarded the decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut production by a record 2.2 million barrels a day, fearing lack of compliance by its members. Instead, traders chose to focus on the shrinking demand in the sluggish economy as oil prices briefly fell below $35a barrel to levels not seen since 2004.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) reported its first-ever quarterly loss and Morgan Stanley (MS) followed with a shortfall of its own.

FedEx Corp. (FDX) posted a higher profit, but gave a dire outlook and announced major compensation cuts for senior management (and benefits cuts for the rank and file). Stocks were relatively flat as investors digested the latest on Madoff, the auto bailout, and significant Fed actions.

Economically Speaking

“The Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote the resumption of sustainable economic growth and to preserve price stability.”

Too bad Fed Chief Ben S. Bernanke couldn’t punctuate that last statement with a hearty “Ho, ho, ho – happy holidays.”

After setting the target for the Federal Funds rate at 0.00% to 0.25%, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policymakers revealed they are studying other measures and may purchase U.S. Treasuries at some point in an effort to stimulate the financial markets.

There are already some signs that the central bank’s action already are working. Mortgage rates have dropped dramatically and borrowers are taking advantage of refinancing opportunities to save on future interest payments. Investors are finding value in corporate and municipal securities, as certain high-quality issues are yielding more than 6% more than comparable Treasuries. Meanwhile, Japan’s central bank followed suit with a rate cut (to 0.1%) of its own.

More details of the Obama stimulus plan emerged during the week and his economic team pegs the total package at about $800 billion (or more than $1 trillion by the time Congress adds its required “pork.”). Tax cuts of up to $100 billion will serve as the most immediate stimuli, with construction (infrastructure), energy and healthcare among the industries that will benefit the most over time.

The data of the week revealed that his package can not arrive soon enough. Housing starts fell by 18.9%, to a record low, and declining building permits did not offer much promise for future construction. Another forecasting release, leading economic indicators, fell for the second consecutive month; in fact, over the past six months, the index has experienced its worst decline since 1991.

The inflation picture remains favorable, though naysayers find pessimistic views in that data as well. The November consumer price index (CPI) fell 1.7%, the largest decline on record (since 1947), as gasoline prices plummeted by 29.5%. While the deflation-mongers claim that falling prices will force consumers to delay purchases (for when they become even cheaper), others point out that gas purchases can not be delayed, as people have to get to work (and few are choosing to ride their bikes or shift into mass transportation). In reality, plunging gasoline serves as a stimulus package without any government interaction (though OPEC is getting involved).

To read more Click here

Investment news



Joel

sales circular asked:


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If you are planning to do some online shopping you might have noticed that are literally thousands of online shops to choose from. With new online stores springing up nearly everyday it is hard for some consumers to choose where to shop. Most consumers choose their online shops based on what they are planning to purchase but this can lead to one consumer visiting several different web sites just to get a little bit of shopping done. Now, in order to make things easier, 5StarShoppingMall.com is able to serve all of your online shopping needs at once.

As one of the largest online shopping malls on the internet salescircular.com gives shoppers access to hundreds of online retailers. These retailers sell everything from fine foods to beauty products making it possible for internet shoppers to make all their purchases conveniently on one web site. In order to ensure a smooth transaction and shopping experience salescircular.com carefully screens all merchants before allowing them to become part of Product comparison site.

If you are looking to buy products but not sure what to look for? Check out our helpful buying tips to find out the features available and what to look for in various products.

If you are a busy consumer that values convenience and services that are helpful in saving you time, then salescircular.com is exactly what you need. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain from using the salescircular.com service.

We at Salescircular.com believe folks like to shop at local retail stores - see, touch and feel are still important when it comes to buying. We are your Sales Circulars on the Web and we make the comparison shopping easy for you.

 

 



Carolyn

DLiLAngel16 asked:


I’ve just started a retail position in a clothing store, I’m only seasonal for the holidays, but I do know there is room for one person to stay on after the holidays and I want to make sure it is me. I’ve also never worked in clothing before…. my question is, how can I be a better associate in clothing and what is the best way to up sale?

Pedro