The Power of Retail

When it comes to finding good deals on furniture, especially discount furniture, I am pretty good at getting great pieces at amazing prices. While I am quite specific about what I like, so it’s not often that I find exactly what I’m looking for, but in most cases, it works out pretty well. What you have to keep in mind when buying furniture is how long you expect to use it and that decision will impact what you buy quite a bit. We’ve got all new furniture now, and are still looking to buy a few more pieces, but I don’t think we’ll be using our furniture for more than 3-4 years at a stretch.

J.C. Penney has launched a new way for its customers to learn about its products with its “Know Before You Go” initiative that it launched on jcp.com, its company website. In this platform, shoppers will be able to do their research before going to their stores and so will be better informed and ready to make a decision. There will be information on which stores the merchandise is available at as well as being able to see the weekly sales brochures, so as to better decide when to buy an item.

According to John Irvin, executive vice president of JCPenny Direct, “With Internet features that offer time-saving conveniences, our ‘Know Before You Go’ initiative is the latest way we’re building our integrated, multichannel strategy around customers. With 80 percent of jcp.com customers also visiting our stores, we are focused on delivering a more integrated, complementary experience for customers, leveraging jcp.com as the gateway to experience all the possibilities inside JCPenney.”

The “Know Before You Go” system was created using research on customers and one of the major findings was that the bulk of customers at jcp.com were not coming to shop but instead coming for other reasons, such as research, viewing the range of merchandise, comparing prices with other brands, finding information on sales and special deals and looking for tips and ideas on how to decorate their home.

The internet has radically changed how we do business by making things such as medical supplies available online. At one time, these were extremely niche products and could only be found at specialist brick and mortar stores, but now are easily found on the internet. If you do business on the internet, it has also opened up the entire world for you to conduct your business, in a way that is much faster than if you were to expand in the traditional sense. It remains to be seen just how much online commerce affects business in the future.

I came across an interesting site called EverNote where you can organize all your notes in one easy platform. You don’t need to be a tech wizard to understand how to use it, which makes it all the more accessible. using EverNote you can create notes using text, pictures, web clips as well as handwriting. Their system sync snapshots from your mobile phone or PDA to make it available on one platform, and you can then search your notes and share them via email or instant messaging. To make it even more user friendly, you can use Google Desktop search to find your notes. All of its applications are very user friendly and simple to use and best of all it is all free. You will have to register first, so that updates etc can be sent to you.

This holiday season, all things technology seem to be doing rather well, whether they are micro sd chips or iPods or external hard drives and so on. Technology is being adapted by a large number of new customers and this is leading to its wider usage. Interestingly, it is not the normal profile of a technology user that is creating more sales, but rather a different type of user, both older and younger. It will be intriguing to see how it affects the industry in the coming year.

Retailers are going all out to win customers this holiday season and are not waiting for Thanksgiving at all, offering special “Beat the rush” sales. While many stores will remain open on Thanksgiving day, others plan to open earlier in the day to attract more customers. Macy’s held a “Beat the Thanksgiving Rush Shopping Night” on Sunday and kept the store open till 10pm, while Best Buy is holding its own “Beat the rush” sale this week and offering discounts on Apple iPods.

Circuit City started a “Why Wait?” sale on sunday and offered a four day only special deals. Toys “R” Us is also attracting customer to its stores by giving away $10 gift cards on all purchases of over $75 before Thanksgiving. CompUSA will be opening its store from 9pm to midnight on Thanksgiving Day and will be giving its customer pumpkin pie along with online-only special deals.

Kohl’s and J.C. Penney will open their doors open at 4am on Thanksgiving Friday. Both retailers have been opening at an earlier time each year and will be using food, entertainment and even offering accommodation to attract shoppers.

The retail industry has created an amazing amount of specialization when it comes to shopping for gifts, so it is possible to search specifically for a groomsmen gift rather than having to look through lots of generic gift sites first. This specialization has made it so much simpler for consumers to not only locate but also buy merchandise on the internet and has been one of the reasons that has fueled the online shopping phenomenon. Earlier most consumers used to look for items they were interested in buying online and then went to a regular store to purchase them, but that is now changing as consumers are doing more of their shopping online, especially for gift items and those purchased in bulk.

The time for holiday madness is almost here and retailers are hoping for an electric start to Black Friday sales on November 23rd this year. With the way the summer and fall seasons have panned out, retailers are worried that due to the economy as well as no must have products this season, shoppers might hold back on their purchases. Holiday sales at several retailers have been started earlier this year, with even Wal-Mart cutting prices of toys on September 30th. Most consumers are rather hesitant to spend their money this year and retailers are creating a lot of special events to coax them to part with their money.

Several retailers such as Wal-Mart and Circuit City will be offering special deals on their sites on Thanksgiving, while other retailers are planning to open their stores at midnight to get a head start on the shopping madness.

According to Frank Badillo, senior economist at TNS Retail Forward, a consulting firm, “Retailers understand that store traffic is likely to be down this holiday compared with prior years and that they have to pull out all the stops to make sure that limited traffic is coming to their stores instead of others.”

Ever since we moved to our new apartment, we seem to be visiting an unending list of furniture stores, to find the last few pieces of furniture that we need as yet. I am looking for a nice console to keep in the entrance hall, am I am quite specific about the kind of furniture I need. I must be sleek but not too modern, have at least two drawers, be of a warm color and it would be nice to have an open shelf at the bottom where i could put a couple of baskets for the newspapers etc. I don’t like fussy furniture and want something that will go with the rest of the furniture in my home.

This holiday season, shoppers are heading to the numerous closeout sales and coming back piled high with purchases. These sales are mainly due to department stores and wholesalers unloading lots of fall and winter merchandise onto discounters, who are making the most of their windfall. For retailers, its the fastest way of moving slow or non-moving merchandise out of the stores before the holiday rush starts.

Discount retailers are only too happy to take in the overstock of clothing at prices much less than what retailers originally paid. While a part of this margin will be boosting their profits, most discounters are passing on some of their benefit to consumers and offering higher discounts this season as well as newer fashion.

Building 19 is one such discounter that has benefited from retailers unloading stock. According to analysts, off-price retailers are doing better than some department stores and apparel stores at the malls.

The combination of a warm fall along with high costs of energy and food, have led to a much slower than usual fall season while retailers are equipped with adjusting their merchandise requirements, this amount is likely to take some time.

According to Stephen Hoch, head of retail studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “The whole supply-chain system is clogged up, and it could take four to six months for all this to clear up,” Hoch said. “It’s kind of like plumbing.” Off-price retailers, he said, “are seeing a big influx of better inventory than they might normally have.”