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-- Gifts and Dec, 5/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

Email Everywhere

According to Chad White, research director at Smith-Harmon, on the Email Insider blog, in 2009 retailers sent considerably more email to each subscriber than they did during 2008. Top online retailers sent 12 percent more promotional emails in 2009 than they did the year before – and 39 percent more than they sent in 2007. The Retail Email Blog found that each sent an average of 132 emails to each subscriber – that's 11 emails a month and 2.5 emails per week. During December they sent even more.

There's not much more room to increase before consumers stop opening, so White recommends better targeting instead: for instance, less than 22 percent of retailers have a preference center.

Pricing for Profit

Retailers can increase sales and profits if they return the price of a sale item back to its original cost in gradual steps rather than in one jump, according to University of Miami School of Business Administration research. A 30-week field study showed a 200 percent increase in sales and a 55 percent increase in profits from using this strategy, called “Steadily Decreasing Discounting” or “SDD.”

SDD was tested against Everyday Low Pricing, used by discount stores such as Wal-Mart, and Hi-Lo, where stores offer significant discounts on selected items for a limited time period. The research included both lab and field studies.

Home Furnishings Looking Up

The coming six months could be the best the U.S. home furnishings industry has seen in a good while, according to the 2010 High Point Market Business Outlook and CEO Update report published by the High Point Market Authority.

“Reports from retailers across the country and industry experts from a variety of fields, as well as year-end numbers from 2009, suggest that we are back on the road to recovery,” says Brian D. Casey, president and CEO of the High Point Market Authority. “While none of the leading retailers we interviewed sugar-coated their experiences over the past year by any means, we found their responses to be thoughtful and upbeat.”

According to Retail Forward's October 2009 ShopperScape report, 23 percent of consumers are “likely” to make a furniture purchase in the next six months and seven percent “very likely.”

The numbers get a little better for a home furnishings/home decor purchase, with 30 percent “likely” and eight percent “very likely.”

Gotta Have It!

Nine out of 10 shoppers say they can live without indulgences like luxury handbags, high-end cosmetics and fine dining, maid services, facials and satellite radio, according to research conducted for STORES by BIGresearch.

However they're not willing to live without Internet service, basic cable or satellite TV, basic cell phone service and discount apparel shopping.

Seventy percent of the more than 6,000 shoppers surveyed say they've cut back on more than three-quarters of the products and services mentioned in the survey– an increase of 9 percent from 2008.

Women are more apt to consider products and services to be expendable, which may mean a tough year for retailers since most customers are female.

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How wonderful to call a number and actually be able to talk to Caroline Kennedy. In this electronic age, I was almost speechless to experience a real person at the other end of a phone.
I just wanted to know how to respond to a letter to the editor in the July 2010 issue. Mary Ann McLeod wrote of her frustration with "the trend away from print wholesale catalogs." I have been a retail buyer for twenty six years and agree with her completely. I, also, attend fewer trade shows and appreciate the internet as a tool to learn about new products and view lines.
I don't wish to appear a dinosaur,but I do remember "on the road reps" and wonderful catalogs. I live in a very small town in an out of the way place, but still enjoyed and gained from face to face contact and advice. There are definitely fewer reps on the road, understandably, but I am content to call them, catalog in hand, and talk about their product. I take notes,and put together orders. We establish not only a loyal relationship,but also a friendship. I find hard catalogs and sales reps invaluable.
Some companies now just say "Go to our website." I do check them out only to get back to them to say that I find most websites cumbersome,frustrating, and will not order from them. I pretty much stick to companies with catalogs. I am not against being "green," but the "green" applies only to them and not to me. Struggling with a website is not how I want to spend my evenings.
I agree totally with everything said in Mary Ann Mcleod's letter. I see retailers who have have never experienced a catalog and the help of a sales rep as deprived as those who have only tasted liquified cheese in a movie theater and never a finely made wedge from a cheesemaker.
In lieu of actually being able to see and touch the products I want order, a catalog and a person are the next best thing.
Sincerely,
Dina Landis
Small World
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Dina Landis - 2010-08-02 20:50:11 EDT

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