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Retail: Pinterest Coming Soon to a Nordstrom Store Near You

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July 9, 2013

Department store chain Nordstrom is bringing Pinterest into its locations with a trial program in order to better engage with its customers both online and in the physical space. The retailer has a significant presence on the social networking site, more than its closest competitors combined. Nordstrom is integrating its products posted on Pinterest with the same products at its retail locations. It is also using Pinterest for its inventory management system. Continue reading Retail: Pinterest Coming Soon to a Nordstrom Store Near You

PayPal Galactic Exploring Payment Systems in Outer Space

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July 9, 2013

PayPal recently announced a new initiative to explore interplanetary and space financial payment services. In a joint partnership with the scientific community, including the SETI Institute and the Space Tourism Society, PayPal is preparing to serve and support space commerce of the future. PayPal plans to work with the space industry to address the commercialization of space. Issues to be addressed will involve currency standards, how banking will operate, and how to deal with new regulations. Continue reading PayPal Galactic Exploring Payment Systems in Outer Space

Square Market Can Now Make Every Business an Online Store

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July 1, 2013

Square, the credit card reader and processor for mobile devices, recently introduced its own online marketplace, Square Market. This move is an expansion of its mobile payment services and a challenge to other online marketplaces, such as Etsy, Amazon and eBay. Square Market is the latest shopping system to support social selling. Its minimal approach allows social media platforms to become an online storefront for any business. Continue reading Square Market Can Now Make Every Business an Online Store

Advertising for Good: Google AdSense Helps Fuel the Web

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June 19, 2013

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of Google AdSense. Following the company’s successful launch of AdWords, Google expanded its search-based ad program with a self-service option designed to maximize revenue potential for websites while improving the user experience with more relevant ads. Providing advertisers with the ability to reach across pages dynamically has led to a service that over time has helped steer the economics of the Web. Continue reading Advertising for Good: Google AdSense Helps Fuel the Web

Why Buy Albums When You Can Get the Songs for Free?

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April 4, 2013

Sites like Pandora and Spotify have made a significant impact on the music industry with their free streaming music services. Now, these sites may be influencing how well artists do in regards to their album sales. Justin Timberlake, for example, released his new album “The 20/20 Experience” to Spotify, which resulted in 980,000 copies being sold within the first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Continue reading Why Buy Albums When You Can Get the Songs for Free?

Amazon to Acquire Goodreads for Competitive E-Book Edge

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April 1, 2013

Amazon announced it will purchase the popular book discovery and recommendation website Goodreads, a social service that centers on book recommendations and reviews. The acquisition — which comes at a time when readers are increasingly turning to tablets and e-readers to search for authors and books — could help push Amazon ahead of competitors Apple and Google in e-book retailing. Continue reading Amazon to Acquire Goodreads for Competitive E-Book Edge

U.S. Senate Votes in Favor of Levying Internet Sales Taxes

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March 28, 2013

Some senators argued that implementing an Internet sales tax would be harmful to taxpayers, would be anti-business and would create a “bureaucratic nightmare.” Nonetheless, endorsement of Internet sales taxes onto a Democratic budget bill passed easily in the Senate last week by a 75 to 24 margin. The adopted amendment allows states to “collect taxes on remote sales,” ushering in the first national Internet sales tax. Continue reading U.S. Senate Votes in Favor of Levying Internet Sales Taxes

Google Takes Next Step to Dominate Retail with Acquisition

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February 27, 2013

Google’s purchase this month of Channel Intelligence, a data management platform for retailer inventory, suggests that Google has plans to become the dominant player in global e-commerce. In the U.S. alone, that market is already worth $186 billion. The $125 million deal will not only impact Google’s ad business, but underscores the company’s strategy to work its way into the retail market, starting with e-commerce websites. Continue reading Google Takes Next Step to Dominate Retail with Acquisition

Netscape Founder Predicts the Death of Traditional Retail

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February 11, 2013

Netscape creator Marc Andreessen, who has invested in successful ventures such as Pinterest and Foursquare, recently discussed his views on the future of commerce. The tech investor believes traditional retail stores will die off, while e-commerce stores will be the only way people shop in the future. He expects a big shift in the next three to four years, a different view from those who suggest innovation in e-commerce is slowing. Continue reading Netscape Founder Predicts the Death of Traditional Retail

App & Mortar Economy: New Battle for Consumer Relationships

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February 1, 2013

Instead of using the term “mobile commerce,” analytics provider Flurry describes “App & Mortar” trends in its new report about the rise in smartphone shopping. “This report confirms what we already knew about mobile commerce, but takes it a step further by figuring out who is benefiting the most right now from the trend. Surprisingly, it’s physical retailers,” according to AllThingsD. Continue reading App & Mortar Economy: New Battle for Consumer Relationships

Retail Strategy: Exec Discusses What He Learned Building the Apple Stores

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November 23, 2011
  • Ron Johnson, the new CEO of J.C. Penny and the former SVP of retail for Apple, talks about what he learned building the Apple Stores, the leading U.S. retailer with sales of $5,626 per square foot, nearly double the sales of Tiffany & Co, its closest competitor.
  • People come to the Apple Store for the experience, the most important part of which is the staff. The philosophy is NOT focused on selling, but on building relationships and making the customer’s life better, a model that worked for Apple.
  • “The staff is exceptionally well trained, and they’re not on commission, so it makes no difference to them if they sell you an expensive new computer or help you make your old one run better so you’re happy with it,” explains Johnson. “Their job is to figure out what you need and help you get it, even if it’s a product Apple doesn’t carry. Compare that with other retailers where the emphasis is on cross-selling and upselling and, basically, encouraging customers to buy more, even if they don’t want or need it.”
  • The Apple model is not easy, and has required persistence. The Genius Bar, for example, was not popular in the beginning, but Apple stuck with it as the best way to help customers. “Three years after the Genius Bar launched, it was so popular we had to set up a reservation system,” writes Johnson.

Jonathan Card Remains Optimistic, Despite Shutdown by Starbucks

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August 16, 2011
  • Starbucks shut down Jonathan Stark’s pay-it-forward social experiment by deactivating Stark’s community-giving Starbucks Card.
  • Reps from Starbucks were reportedly rooting for the experiment to be successful (despite the violation of the card’s terms of use), but the company felt it had no choice when it learned that funds were being misappropriated by a hacker, defeating the social adaptation of “take a penny, leave a penny” that Stark originally envisioned.
  • Hundreds of people had donated several thousand dollars prior to the project being shut down, suggesting the experiment was not a failure.
  • The Jonathan’s Card website remains optimistic: “We believe this is the start to a bigger more glowing picture. In the last 5 days or so, we’ve received hundreds of stories of people doing small things to brighten a stranger’s day: Paying for the next car at the drive through. Sharing a pick me up with someone who has had a rough time. Charging up a phone card and sharing it with strangers at the airport… So, tonight we lose our barcode. But of course, we never needed it in the first place.”

E-Commerce: Purchasing via Tablets on the Rise

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July 26, 2011
  • Consumers are increasingly using iPads and other tablet devices for mobile purchases, according to a new report by Forrester Research released this week.
  • Tablets might even one day outpace smartphones and PCs in terms of e-commerce volume.
  • The devices already account for 20 percent of mobile sales, even though just 9 percent of online shoppers have tablets. Additionally, 60 percent of tablet owners say they have used the devices to shop.
  • Tablets typically offer richer catalog presentations than those available via smartphones, and applications often produce faster loading times than retailers’ websites.
  • “Everyone thinks that mobile phones and mobile commerce are the next big things, and I think what this data shows is it’s probably actually tablets,” explains Sucharita Mulpuru, a Forrester analyst. “We have always capped e-commerce at 10 to 15 percent of total retail sales, but this potentially has the capability of really expanding e-commerce much beyond that.”

Borders to Close its Doors for Good by September

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July 19, 2011
  • Following failed attempts to draw investor interest in a bankruptcy court auction, Borders Group Inc. has announced it will liquidate its remaining assets.
  • The second-largest U.S. bookstore chain says it will start liquidating its remaining 399 stores as soon as Friday, with the business to be shuttered for good by September. The company employs nearly 11,000 people.
  • “We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the head winds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, [electronic reader] revolution and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now,” explained Borders President Mike Edwards.
  • Analysts have expressed concern that the demise of Borders may speed the decline in book sales and possibly make it more challenging for new writers to be discovered. Michael Norris, a senior analyst at Simba Information added, “Thousands of people whose job consisted of talking up and selling books will eventually being doing something else, and that’s bad for authors, agents, and everyone associated with the value chain in books.”
  • ETCentric staffer Dennis Kuba commented: “Looks like Amazon has one more to go. I’ll miss browsing through the stacks.”

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