The Power of Retail

Here’s another great idea reported by Springwise, called Postful where anyone with access email can send a real letter to a regular postal address. All you have to do is to send an email to quickletter@postful.com, write the mailing address as the subject line, write your letter as usual and you’re set. Your letter will be printed out and delivered to the recipient without any branding or advertisng added. All letters are sent out within 24 hours.

Pricing is simple: USD 0.99 for the first page and USD 0.25 for each additional page, which includes full-colour printing, paper, envelope and first-class postage. Currently only available in the United States, but international mailing is one of the most requested features from beta users, so Postful is hard at work to start offering that as soon as possible.

Once golfing fever gets you, there’s simply no going back. I got into in several years back, where we were playing golf every single day, discussing golf 24 hours a day, and still didn’t get tired of it. My parents are such die hard golfers that they took a 45 day trip around the country in their car, so they could travel and play golf in as many golf courses around the country. Once you’re in then you don’t even realize that every second sentance is about golf, about the new Titleist golf clubs, the new technique to hit a wedge shot and so on. Golf then ceases to be a game, it becomes a religion.

UK based Tesco opened it’s first store in Japan this week. The store is a small discount supermarket under the name Tesco Express and is located in a suburb of Tokyo. Another two stores are being planned to open later this year. Tesco is the third largest retailer in the world, after US company Wal-Mart and French chain Carrefour. Tesco has stores all across Europe and is steadily opening stores in Asia, in countries such as South Korea, Thailand, China and Malaysia.

Forever 21, another proponent of “cheap chic”, will be opening stores in Canada. The Los Angeles based company that specializes in selling the latest and trendiest fashions plans to open a store in Toronto this summer. This segment of the retail industry has shown some the best figures to date, with retailers such as Zara and H&M gaining cult status for finding fashionable clothes at affordable prices. Both firms along with Old Navy have seen a lot of success in the Canadian market and Forever 21 is hoping to hit the sweet spot again with consumers. Forever 21 has 390 stores in the US and stores in Dubai and Singapore. The company opened a test store in the West Edmonton Mall in 2001, although it did not further expand at that time.

Like H&M, Forever 21’s formula for success hinges on the quick conversion of styles from the fashion runway to the store floor. While it sources some clothing overseas, the bulk of its house-branded fashions are produced in the United States to ensure speedy production of the latest looks.

I think it’s time we start planning our next vacation. My father is very keen on going trout fishing in the mountains and I’m thinking it would be a really great way to unwind, as we really need a completely relaxing vacation, where the only agenda of the day might be only where to go fishing for the day, what fishing tackle to use, how to cook the fish and more along those lines. Fishing is a good time to spend think about life, philosophize and wonder where the next day, month and year will take us.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is finally being used and talked about beyond the boardroom as companies are going green like never before. While there is a lot of hype around being environmentally-aware and environmentally-active, both companies and consumers are striking a better balance at meeting the needs of both sides now.

• Some of the newer initiatives that have come from this green awareness include HP’s plan to eliminate approximately 30,000 cubic ft of polystyrene computer packaging and over 6 million lbs of PVC packaging from its inkjet printer business, which will reduce the company’s carbon footprint by 20%.
• Nike will remove a toxic compound from its air shock absorption technology.
• Starbucks will be paying farmers 42% higher than the global commodity price for Arabica coffee beans, so that it can provide 500,000 farmers a decent wage.
• Timberland plans to make all its retail and production facilities carbon neutral by 2010, by planting trees in equatorial regions.
• Wal-Mart has reduced consumption by 478.1 million gallons of water and 20.7 million gallons of diesel through its Zero Waste initiative. The company will also be reducing its energy consumption by 30% at all of its new stores from its 100% Renewable Energy program.

Access to data and information is vital in any business, more so in any business related to or dealing with a large number of clients or products. I worked for one such retailer who had stores across the country but had simply no idea how to coordinate and communicate between them. When the senior management finally caught on to what was happening, they brought in some experts who recommended that the company invest in a web based application that would create a system of communication, sharing information and data within the company.

Intuit’s QuickBase free online database is the simplest solution for any mid to large size company to organize and share data internally. The system can be applied to solve a variety of business problems covering project management, sales, IT management, process engineering, back office management and many others. Users will be able to access information as and when they need it, can enable authority levels to control access to data and manage all their processes centrally.

Currently Intuit QuickBase is offering a 30-day free trial offer, where there is no obligation to purchase, no credit card required, no hassles at all to test the system out for yourself. The free trial offer gives you complete privileges to check the system out, for 10 people so you can get an all round perspective of how it works. With clients such as Accenture, Bank of America, PR Newswire, Sprint and many more, I’m quite sure you’ll be extremely happy with your experience of this free online database from QuickBase.

I like the option of having pre-built applications that can be used to get started quickly, instead of creating one from scratch each time. I also like the fact that since all information and data is stored online, it is accessible anytime and from any location, not only for yourself, but also for those who have the required authority level. QuickBase is simple and quick to set up, since there is no software to load and can be done even if you have very little or zero IT knowledge.

According to a recent survey by JupiterResearch, brand marketers are increasingly using social networking methods for promotional activity and to create buzz. Based on their research, 32% of the respondents said that they had used promotional microsites or plan to use them this year, 22% use advertising on weblogs and 24% use online advertising campaigns. Interestingly, the majority of them (89%) visit the social networking sites to communicate with peers. Winning the trust of readers and peers is key to advertising using social networking media formats, and 30% of those who frequent social networks feel that they would trust their peers opinion while only 10% would trust advertisements.

To precipitate that buzz, marketers must design campaigns that get social networkers talking, Jupiter says For example, an ad for a Spiderman movie advertised on AOL’s social site, AOL Peopleconnection, gave networkers the ability to attach the movie`s video trailer to their own online profile. “When friends saw the trailer on their friend’s page, they viewed it as content rather than an ad,” Jupiter says.

As a retail analyst, I am often asked for my opinon on future trends pertaining to retail, especially on consumer goods like electronics. While predicting what will happen in a certain industry can be quite intriguing and challenging, it is not always easy to do so on ones own without back up from formulas and equations. Part of the challenge is to find the right information from within the company to come up with the reliable forecast. There are however lots of forecasting software programs avilable that can come up with some solutions and direction, once fed with the right information.

Tesco will be opening a new type of food and grocery store in the US which they believe will change the way consumers shop. The new stores will be small neighborhood stores called Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets and will sell fresh fruits, vegetables and meats. The stores will offer a large variety of ready to eat meals targeted at consumers who want to eat good food but don’t have the time to prepare them.

Tesco has created this concept after thorough market research concerning how US consumers shop for and cook their meals. The new stores are going to be the size of an average 7-Eleven, around 10,000 sq ft only as compared to the usual 45,000 sq ft that grocery retailers normally cover. Tesco is working hard to convey that these stores will not be “convenience stores” that are common in the US, but will specifically be fresh food supermarkets.

The first of these stores will open in California, Arizona and Nevada later on this year, with the company already having selected 100 sites, 20 of which are in the Phoenix area, one of the fastest growing cities in the US. Globally, Tesco is in the top five retailers of the world and has 2,800 stores in 13 countries employing over 370,000 people.

The Fresh & Easy model exposes a gap in the industry, which has been hampered in the last decade by consumers who now shop at convenience stores, wholesale retailers and specialty stores, in addition to local supermarkets, explained Currie. Shoppers haven’t abandoned the supermarket, he said, but the practice of stocking up with groceries for the long haul is ripe for change.“The supermarket has been fragmented,” Currie said. “There is an opportunity here to redefine the business model.”

Currie said Tesco’s model would incorporate cheaper labor, cheaper real estate and subsequently lower costs at the register. Competitors’ prices are likely to fall in response.