With the new school year just around the corner, parents are searching for the best deals on school supplies. According to a survey released on Tuesday by consulting group Deloitte, nine out of 10 people are planning to spend just as much or more than they did the previous year.

The survey was conducted between July 5 and July 12 and polled 1,134 parents with children that are attending grades K-12. This survey follows the results from a poll by The National Retail Federation that indicated the average parent will spend up to 14 percent more on school supplies this year.

This survey also reported that polled parents who plan to spend less than $100 has dropped by half to only 9 percent this year. Conversely, consumers who are expecting to spend more than $500 have risen by 27 percent.

“What really stood out to me is I think I had an expectation that consumers would be a little more glum than they turned out to be,” Alison Paul, vice chairwoman at Deloitte and the retail and distribution sector leader, told NBC News.

As retailers prepare for this increase in sales, they might benefit by the retail merchandising applications offered by Retail Pro.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, August 2nd, 2012 at 4:09 am .

On Tuesday, CNBC was given a tour of the new JC Penney store design. The retail giant has been in the news lately after announcing it would no longer be offering coupons to its customers. JC Penney is now offering a complete overhaul of its pricing to give customers the lowest prices daily.

Although JC Penney saw a small bump in the market since the announcement of its new store design, the retailer’s stock price has gone down by up to 50 percent since February. But the stock price isn’t what concerns CEO Ron Johnson. “We’re just trying to retrain our customers and do a lot of good work,” he told the news network.

Johnson began his retail career at Target and helped to launch Apple’s retail stores.  JC Penney is rebranding with a new spokesperson, a new logo and new pricing to keep its items priced up to 40 percent lower.

“We want customers to shop on their terms, not ours,” Johnson told Forbes. “By setting our store monthly and maintaining our best prices for an entire month, we feel confident that customers will love shopping when it is convenient for them, rather than when it is expedient for us

As JC Penney continues to revamp its image, the retailer could improve customer service relations with the POS software solutions offered by Retail Pro.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, August 2nd, 2012 at 4:01 am .

With the emergence of social media channels, it seems as though users of these sites share all kinds of information online. However, recent research has found that when it comes to shopping, consumers would be more hesitant to talk about their preferences on social networks, opting instead to let retailers know the details.

According to Internet Retailer, recent research by MyBuys Inc. and The E-tailing Group found that 55 percent of the consumers surveyed are "mostly willing" to interact with the retail industry and let them know about their shopping preferences. Approximately 52 percent said they would be "much more concerned" or "somewhat more concerned" when sharing the same type of information on social media networks. When it comes to the kind of preferences they would share, 63 percent said they would let retailers know about the types of retail offers they like and which ones they would be most likely to respond to, the website reports.

Retailers can learn more about interacting with their shoppers regarding their preferences, along with a variety of other topics, at the 2012 Retail Pro Global Conference, which will take place in San Francisco, California, on October 12 – 16. Retail professionals can find more information and register at https://www.retailpro.com/2012Conference/Registration.php.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, August 1st, 2012 at 10:27 am .

News for the U.K. retail sector continues to look bleak. A new report indicates companies' retail point-of-sale systems are seeing reducing use, as shop numbers fall.

The British Retail Consortium-Bond Pearce Retail Employment Monitor, which began in 2008, reported the first fall in the number of shops since October 2008. According to the report, the number of retail outlets fell by 0.5 percent year-over-year.

Additionally, the drop in the number of high street shops coinciding with the shrinking of the U.K. economy by 0.7 percent, a figure that belies its magnitudes and extends the country's douple-dip recession.

Even the nation's landmark celebrations, such as the Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, have provided limited help. "Big events like the Jubilee celebrations provided a limited boost to employment levels but underlying weakness in the economy and consumer confidence continue to hit sales and job numbers in non-food retailing," said BRC director general Stephen Robertson.

Still, British retailers are hopeful that the Olympics will boost shops as well as leisure and hospitality sectors.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, July 30th, 2012 at 9:43 am .

Retail merchandising is going social, according to a new study. The sector is leading the way for adoption of the relatively new technology.

The study by IDC, 2012 U.S. Social Media Trends by Vertical, found that retailers are driving social media adoption. For example, companies are using analytics and information gained from sites such as Facebook, Groupon and Twitter to develop more targeted marketing messages for their audiences.

Additionally, retailers are using numerous channels, such as mobile, to integrate their online advertising strategies. Facebook and Twitter are proving especially helpful forums for collecting customer feedback and increasing product awareness.

"The most popular reason businesses are using social media is to increase brand and product awareness," the website Business2Community asserts. "Based on the fact that social networks have increased the range and speed of word of mouth conversations to travel, this is one of the best qualities social media has to offer companies."

A recent article in The Guardian suggests that part of the effectiveness of social media can be explained by psychology: it allows people to talk and share with other individuals with similar passions.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, July 30th, 2012 at 9:42 am .

 
Next to Christmas, back to school sales are the largest for retail giants like Wal-Mart, Target and Staples. In order to fight online sales, retailers are giving customers pricing unlike anything they have seen before. According to the National Retail Foundation, parents are looking to spend more than ever on back-to-school supplies for their children.

"If there's money out there to be had, they feel like they need to get it now in case months from now people aren't feeling so fabulous," Wendy Liebmann, CEO of consulting group WSL Strategic Retail, told USA Today.

Some retailers are even cashing in on back-to-school sales through special promotions. Wal-Mart has launched a deal that is aimed toward students and teachers alike, allowing certain products such as paperclips, erasers and pencils to sell for as little as 88 cents.

Staples has offered a special promotion where students can exchange their old binders for a $2 discount for new units. Other stores are cashing in on web sales. Target extended its Black Friday pricing to apparel and electronics for its online customers.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, July 27th, 2012 at 12:20 pm .

 
With online sales soaring, lawmakers are calling for a revival of Internet sales tax. Since the 1992 Supreme Court ruling that merchants without a physical storefront in a state are not responsible for collecting sales tax, online retailers have not had to collect it. Although it is not clear whether a new bill calling for sales tax will make it to the floor before the end of the year, According to NBC News a House Judiciary Committee would like a change.

Online sales accrue an estimated $20 billion a year, a figure that many believe could help with the rising deficits of many states. One of the most amazing aspects about the proposed sales tax is the fact that it has so much support from both parties.

Bill Haslam, the governor of Tennessee, told NBC News that he believes the bill would only be “collecting taxes already owed.” The National Retail Federation is supporting the bill in an effort to combat “showrooming.” Showrooming is where a customer will go to a physical store to look at a product and then go home to purchase it online in order to avoid tax.

As more about this bill comes to light, ecommerce stores and physical retailers could see an upsurge of purchases. In an effort to deliver the best in customer service, the POS software solutions offered by Retail Pro could help benefit this increase in sales.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, July 27th, 2012 at 12:18 pm .

As the United States economic slowdown continues, retailers are seeing a boom in emerging markets overseas. Luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and L’Oreal are seeing a large demand from China.

The second-quarter revenue of L’Oreal climbed by about 12 percent this year, leaving the Paris-based company with 5.57 billion euro in revenue, Bloomberg reports. Other luxury brands such as Gucci and Givenchy and Fendi are also seeing profits skyrocket in the Asian markets.

“In a world where companies are struggling with diving European demand and media are awash with bad news, luxury-goods companies like LVMH and PPR seem to be coming from another planet,” Luca Solca, global head of the European equities department at CA Cheureux, told Bloomberg.

Bain & Co, a global management consulting firm, estimates that the luxury market in Asia-Pacific could expand by as much as 16 percent this year, the news source reports. These estimates exclude China, which is forecast to expand by as much as 22 percent. 

As these companies begin to prepare for growth in the Asian markets, they could benefit from the retail solutions provided by Retail Pro. Retail Pro’s retail management software and store merchandising applications are designed to help retailers track sales and inventory.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, July 27th, 2012 at 12:14 pm .

It’s no secret that Facebook is the source of millions of connections, but the social media platform is starting to become a relevant source for small business retail sales. According to The New York Times, small business Facebook pages are starting to replace the old means of marketing.

This form of marketing is easy and free, making it an excellent source for drumming up new business. However, small businesses will need to stay ahead of the curve to keep their storefront pages fresh.

“Because Facebook storefronts can look generic, small businesses have to find ways to differentiate themselves,” said Jay Bean, OrangeSoda’s chief executive of online marketing, in an interview with the newspaper.

The new Facebook storefronts pages allow users to upload pictures of their store, staff and products in an effort to show potential customers how their business is different from the competition.

“Unlike larger businesses, small businesses can build on their personal relationships to end users,” Wendy Tan-White, the chief executive of Moonfruit, a company that helps businesses create e-commerce websites and online stores, told the Times.

When customers tag their own photos of products, they have the ability to link to the small business from which they purchased the product. This can help businesses grow through viral marketing.

As store operations begin to grow with Facebook, retailers could be looking into expanding retail management systems. Retail Pro’s POS software applications could help stores deliver excellent customer service through their diverse line of ecommerce software.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, July 26th, 2012 at 2:08 pm .

 
U.S. retailers are beginning to look at Canada as a viable location for expansion. However, space might be an issue. Canadian news sources are reporting that Bloomingdale's could possibly be in negotiations with Hudson’s Bay Co., a Toronto-based firm that currently owns Lord & Taylor, as well as the popular Canadian department store Zellers.

According to the Globe and Mail, if Bloomingdale's does expand into Canada, it will not be a stand-alone store. Instead, the major U.S. retailer will be located within select Bay locations.

"The Bay now has to protect itself because they've got a strong competitor on the lower end with Target, so they might as well get in on the upper edge with Bloomingdale's," said Don Gregor, Aurora Realty Consultant’s national vice president, in an interview with Globe And Mail.
This could be a winning move for Bloomingdale's. Rental space for a stand-alone store ranged from $30 to $120 per square foot in 2010 and has seen a 6 percent increase over the last two years, according to Cushman & Wakefield research.

“Even though there is a lot of retail development under way, in most Canadian markets there is very low vacancy and there has been an increase in lease rates,” said James Smerdon, director of retail and consulting with Colliers, a Vancouver-based firm, told Global Edmonton.

In the event that U.S. retailers do expand their operations to Canada, they might benefit from retail solutions, such as the POS software offered by Retail Pro.
 

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, July 26th, 2012 at 1:58 pm .