best buy
Mobile Devices to Boost US Holiday Ecommerce Sales Growth
source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Devices-Boost-US-Holiday-Ecommerce-Sales-Growth/1010189
Mcommerce to increase its share of total ecommerce retail sales
Mobile devices account for a rapidly growing share of US retail ecommerce sales, and are expected to contribute to strong ecommerce sales growth this holiday season, according to eMarketer’s latest estimates.
eMarketer projects that retail ecommerce holiday sales in the US will rise about 15% again this year, matching last year’s gains. In total, US retail ecommerce sales for the holiday season—defined as November and December—are expected to reach $61.8 billion, up from $53.7 billion last year.
Mcommerce is expected to play an important part in overall digital holiday retail spending. This year, mobile devices will account for a larger-than-expected share of total US retail ecommerce sales, according to the newly revised forecast. eMarketer expects that mobile’s share will reach 16% in 2013, up from our previous prediction of a 15% mcommerce share this year.
The revision comes as data sets from multiple research sources showed mcommerce as a percent of retail ecommerce sales reached record highs earlier this year. In addition, large retailers, such as Best Buy and Home Depot, continue to invest heavily in smartphones and tablets, building out their mobile app and website offerings, and increasing spending on digital advertising in an effort to drive more conversions across devices and compete with companies with strong mobile infrastructure like Amazon and eBay.
In total, eMarketer predicts retail mcommerce sales will reach $41.68 billion this year and by 2017, retail sales made on mobile devices will climb to well over $100 b! illion.
drag2share: Social Media Ownership – What Department Owns Social Media in Organizations
source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/m3safwzygl4/a-primer-on-social-crm-2013-8
While Twelpforce has been a great success externally, it also gave employees a channel and an incentive to collaborate internally (in order to handle customer requests it was often necessary to gather information from other employees.)
The initiative has led to information-sharing across Best Buy, which has helped to eliminate the practice of putting social media functions into corporate silos. The expanded communication also boosted employee morale.
Best Buy Had A Spectacular Coupon Fail That Started A Feeding Frenzy (BBY)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-buy-coupon-fail-2013-1
Best Buy totally messed up on one of its coupons recently.
First, it offered a coupon for $50 off a purchase of $100 or more as long as the customer used a Mastercard. Like most coupons of its type, it excluded some items, such as iPods and certain brands of TVs.
But it didn’t exclude gift cards.
How Restoration Hardware Made ‘Showrooming’ An Asset Instead Of An Enemy
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/restoration-hardware-uses-showrooms-2012-12
Many retailers are terrified of turning into a showroom. They fear consumers will come only to test out the products they’ll later buy online.
Furniture store Restoration Hardware decided to approach “showrooming” differently by accepting and encouraging it, reports Joan Solsman at The Wall Street Journal.
Many stores, including Restoration Hardware’s rival Pottery Barn, fought showrooming by “rushing to lower prices,” Solsman writes.
But Restoration Hardware decreased its number of physical stores and used the remaining ones as showrooms. Sofas, tables, rugs and other decor were meticulously arranged with an emphasis on the aesthetic. Customers could find even more merchandise online or in catalogues while shopping in the stores.
The tactic is working. Direct-to-consumer now makes up half of Restoration Hardware’s business, and the retailer has reported double-digit sales growth for 10 quarters, according to Solsman.
Restoration Hardware’s model probably wouldn’t work for Best Buy, the most prolific victim of “showrooming,” Solsman cautions.
“Furniture and decor, unlike consumer electronics and other items, aren’t easily searchable by specifications,” Solsman writes. “A highly fragmented market, home furnishings sellers benefit from many players having proprietary merchandise, which stunts online competitive threats.”
DON’T MISS: The Fabulous Life Of The Mysterious Billionaire Behind Zara >
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Target Unsuspecting Consumers
Ugg Is Facing A Terrifying Reality Not Even Tom Brady Can Save
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/ugg-sales-are-down-2012-10
Ugg boots, owned by Decker Outdoor Corp., reported earnings last week, and the results were bad.
Profits were down 31 percent, mostly because women aren’t buying Ugg boots. The company said it was going to slash prices to draw more interest to the boots, but even that isn’t guaranteed to help.
Until now, Ugg’s biggest obstacle was image. The boots were seen as sloppy and something women wore with sweatpants.
So Ugg started advertising in fashion magazines to seem more chic. Famous Vogue creative director Andre Leon Talley even came out to endorse the boots, wearing them at New York Fashion Week.
Ugg also hired Tom Brady as a spokesmodel to try and draw men into its stores. So far that move has been successful, and sales are up with the male contingent.
But Ugg faces a terrifying reality: women’s boots might be going out of style.
“The worst is yet to come,” Sam Poser, an analyst at Sterne Agee, told the Huffington Post, adding that “weaker Uggs sales might not just be due to weather, but may indicate that the boots have fallen out of fashion.”
If that’s true, Ugg’s problems become a lot more daunting. While the company is making strides with men, women’s boots make up the vast majority of its business.
Women are unlikely to shell out for Ugg flats or loafers because they are already loyal to other brands. Boots are the core product.&! nbsp;
If boots are actually out of style, Ugg will have just have to wait for the fashion cycle to turn around.
DON’T MISS: It Was Pretty Clear During The Hurricane That Best Buy’s Training Initiative Isn’t Working >
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$249, ultrathin, 6.5-hour battery, 1080p video
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/18/google-launches-11-6-inch-arm-based-samsung-chromebook-249-ul/
Google just launched the latest iteration of its Chrome OS-based laptop here in San Francisco — the $249 (or £229, for those in the UK) 11.6-inch Samsung Chromebook. It’s ARM-based (fanless), 0.8-inches thick, weighs only 2.43 pounds, runs 6.5+ hours on battery, boots in under 10 seconds and supports 1080p video playback. Pre-orders start today at Amazon and PC World, and the laptop includes Google Now integration using Google Drive as a transport and comes with 100GB of free storage for two years. It will be available for sale on the Play Store and featured prominently at retailers like Best Buy, and naturally, we’re expecting this one to make a bigger splash than prior models based on the bargain bin price alone.
Under the hood, there’s a dual-core A15-based Samsung Exynos 5 Dual (5250) SoC, 2GB RAM, 16GB of built-in flash storage, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth, all of which should act to give this Chromebook a lot more oomph compared to slower, earlier models. Other specs include a 1366 x 768 native screen resolution, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 socket, combo headphone / mic jack, an SD card slot and a “full-size Chrome keyboard.” Hit up the links below for the nitty-gritty, or hop on past the break for a promo vid.
Update: Our hands-o! n with t he new Chromebook is live!
Gallery: New Chromebook (2012)
Google launches 11.6-inch ARM-based Samsung Chromebook: $249, ultrathin, 6.5-hour battery, 1080p video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/vip/~3/kxnvLJen2SQ/best-buy-to-price+match-the-internet
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Best Buy plans to match the price of internet retailers like Amazon over the holidays this year, as well as offering free home delivery when stores are out of stock.
According to a good ol’ “person familiar with the matter”, the electronics chain is assuming the strategy over the holiday season to draw customers away from shopping purely online. That’s something that will appeal to many consumers—especially those who prefer a traditional shopping experience.
It does, however, seem to contradict comments made by Best Buy’s new CEO Hubert Joly. He recently claimed that the prevalence of “showrooming”—where consumers head into shops to check out goods before ultimately buying online—has been blown out of proportion.
Maybe that contradiction is just reflective of the conundrum all big-box retailers face: they need to keep up with online retailers, but they don’t want to lose sight of what once made them successful. That’s a tough call.
Either way, price matching would inevitably draw in more custom. Would you buy something at Best Buy instead of ordering online, all prices being equal? [WSJ]
Image by Lynn Watson / Shutterstock.com
9 Trends That Are Transforming The Retail World
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/9-trends-that-are-transforming-the-retail-world-2012-7
Retail is going through a period of flux. From big box stores to specialty shops to online vendors, everyone’s trying to figure out how to survive.
It has become all about the ability to adapt as technology transforms the retail landscape.
“As a shopper, your basic needs don’t change,” says Piers Fawkes, founder and editor-in-chief of PSFK. “But your behavior is dependent on the technology that’s around you.”
The PSFK consulting team’s Future of Retail report identifies nine major trends that are part of the “seismic shift” changing the retail world, and provides examples of companies that are making an impact.
Consumers want to be more informed than ever, and brands are fulfilling that demand
Retailers are training their staff to be experts in whatever field they’re in.
In an effort to curb the impact of showrooming, Best Buy’s redesigned stores include multiple points of customer service and coaching — the Geek Squad Solution Center, a home theater design center and the Pacific Home & Kitchen section.
Retailers are letting customers make decisions for them
Take the Barclaycard Ring — a “community-powered” credit card service from Barclays. There’s a forum which lets members suggest features, and it also shares the card’s financial statements and performance numbers with the members so that they can see how the project is doing.
Personal data is being used to customize everything
Perhaps it’s a bit creepy, but when consumers decide to share personal data with retailers (like purchase histories and biometric fit profiles), they’re often using it to customize the experience for each customer.
Neiman Marcus, for example, has a “location-aware” app called NM Service which sends customer preferences right to its sales staff. A user checks in when they get to the store, letting staff give recommendations tailored for the individual.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Best Buy Canada Has A Plan To Crush The Online Competition (BBY)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-buy-canada-showrooming-online-competition-2012-7
Best Buy’s biggest problem these days is “showrooming.“
Showrooming is when a consumer walks into a store, tests out a products, and buys it on the cheap elsewhere online.
Best Buy has been called Amazon.com’s showroom, a nickname that the big-box retailer has been trying to shake.
Well, it seems Best Buy Canada has an obvious plan to address this problem. The Financial Post’s Hollie Shaw reports:
“We always had a price-match guarantee, but now we have extended that to all Canadian online competitors,” [Canada operations president Mike Pratt] said while touring a Best Buy in downtown Toronto. “Showrooming is a completely price-based concept — it’s about the perception of getting a lower price somewhere. When Web pure-play competitors don’t have price, they don’t have any other advantage, quite frankly.”
If you’re in the store and you know they’re giving you the best price, then you’ll probably buy it then and there.
The issue will be profitability. Online retailers have much lower overhead costs. They don’t operate store fronts and they require fewer employees.
SEE ALSO: Best Buy Is Laying Off 1,800 Store Employees And 600 Geek Squad Workers >
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Digital Consigliere
Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.
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