The internet is no longer a novel sphere for retail merchandising – in fact, companies are expected to have a presence on multiple social media outlets.

However, this can become difficult as not all websites are right for every retailer. One newer social media site is appealing specifically to image-dependent retailers. Pinterest allows members to share images and thoughts by "pinning" them to virtual community boards.

Like Twitter and the possibility of "re-tweets," images can be "re-pinned" on other boards, allowing retailers to gain more followers or users in a certain community, Retail Week explains. While the site is still relatively new, it was recently found to drive more interest to websites than Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace combined.

Retail Week suggests two ways that companies can leverage Pinterest: creating themed boards they can share with followers and encouraging consumers to share the content with their own communities.

"Using the social networking site is a good way to build brand presence online, introduce the retailer's product to a new audience and ultimately increase sales," Retail Week explains. "Images are linked to the retailer's website, so users can click through to the transactional site. Retailers can also monitor the kinds of images being shared and searched for by users in order to keep up with trends."

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 2:00 am .

While retailers aren't running out to replace traditional point-of-sale solutions with tablets and other mobile devices, these tools are affecting shoppers' perceptions. A new survey from AisleBuyer suggests consumers view retailers using tablets and mobile devices as being more advanced and innovative.

Approximately one-fifth of shoppers – 22 percent – have been to a retail store where associates use mobile devices instead of cash registers. Meanwhile, half of shoppers – 57 percent – think retailers using these tools instead of registers are more innovative than their competitors. Additionally, 64 percent of businesses noted store employees were more helpful when assisting customers if they had tablets.

"Equipped with a tablet, store employees can do much more than just help customers check out. Now, they can share product information, show video demos and suggest related products – making them a more valuable and profitable part of the in-store sale," AisleBuyer founder and CEO Andrew Paradise said.

Moreover, retailers will be able to improve store operations even more as tablet manufacturers continue to add new features to their devices.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 9:39 am .

European retail merchants looking to improve their operations may want to take a page from Amazon's book, as the online retailer dominates in terms of deals, inventory and customer experience, according to industry expert Scot Wingo.

Wing, who is CEO of ChannelAdvisor, says the key to Amazon's success has been revolutionizing the retail market. For example, one recently launched pilot program features a series of drop boxes installed near two busy subway stations in the U.K. Busy workers would be able to stop by these stations to pick up their purchase, using a code text messaged to them to open the box.

"Amazon has a nice way of figuring out what European shoppers want," he told Internet Retailer. From European web sales alone, the brand generated approximately $16.7 billion last year, up from $12.1 billion in 2010. It also has upward of 4 million Europeans enrolled in the Amazon Prime service.

"Amazon Prime gives Amazon an excellent platform to keep serving up better value, selection and customer service to its best return shoppers,” says Wingo.

New features and services are just one strategy that merchants can employ to streamline store operations. New technology, better customer service, innovative services – these are all crucial to maximizing sales.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 9:38 am .

Gift cards are commonly thought of as just that – presents given from one shopper to another. However, retail merchants are increasingly using the payment tools as a part of their marketing initiatives, Direct Marketing News reports.

The weak economic conditions helped bring gift cards to the mainstream – they are cost-efficient presents that enable the recipient to buy whatever he or she wants. During the 2011 holiday season, consumers spent approximately $27.8 billion on gift cards – approximately $155.43 per person – according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).

Now, retail brands are using gift cards for giveaways and small promotions, providing fans and shoppers with gift cards worth anything from $5 to $1,000. The goal is to give consumers a small incentive to come in and shop, the news outlet reports. Many Americans are cost-conscious given the harsh economic conditions and are looking for deals and discounts – gift cards give them the perfect reason to choose one retailer over another.

The Belk department store chain, for example, gave away more than $1 million worth of gift cards to shoppers on Black Friday. The brand wanted to attract customers and felt gift cards were the perfect way to do that.

"We like offering free gift cards because they offer value, an immediate reason to shop, and they give our customers the flexibility to purchase anything they want," Jon Pollack, executive vice president of marketing, told the news source. "Redemption of these gift cards is extremely high, and by all accounts our customers love them."

The growing popularity of online and mobile shopping is expected to further fuel the popularity of gift cards, which can be purchased and sent digitally to shoppers. Some brands are even developing technology that uses near-field communication (NFC) chips that would be able to give credit to shoppers the moment they walk into stores.

They aren't necessarily cost sinks, either. Frequently, shoppers will spend more than what they have on the gift card, boosting profitability. Conversely, if they don't spend the total amount on the gift card, the merchant is technically making money from the transaction.

That said, it's crucial that retail brands keep their bottom line in mind as they run these promotions. After the 2011 holiday season, a number of merchants had to revise fiscal forecasts because of rampant sales throughout the two-month period.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 9:35 am .

Retailers are increasingly being urged to mine customer to data to improve their retail merchandising strategies and better target consumers.

However, Minnesota Public Radio recently warned companies that they need to be wary of not breaching customers' privacy, as Target was accused of doing last month. The Minnesota-based retailer was called out for using customer shopping patterns to identify which consumers are expecting and thus determine the coupons they receive at checkout and the items marketed to them on the website.

Yet, what may have seemed like a solid marketing strategy was revealed to have gaping holes in terms of respect to privacy at the Predictive Analytics World conference, where one attendee called the practice "Orwellian."

"What Target is doing there is unusual, because typically what retailers and other companies do is they predict what will you buy," Eric Siegel, an analytics consultant who has taught at Columbia University, told the source. "Obviously, whether somebody is pregnant is definitely a private concept. That's certainly sensitive information."

For retailers to stay on the right side of consumers' affections, giving them the opportunity to opt-in into data targeting efforts is a good start.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 5:10 am .

For suggestions on retail merchandising operations, companies may want to consider the differences between two major stores' earning calls.

Sears and Kohl's have both seen better times in the retail space, but it's how their respective company heads discuss their issues and possible solutions that proves useful for retailers, Home Textiles Today explains.

Kevin Mansell, CEO of Kohl's, said that the company's problems stem from its lack of retail merchandising. According to the source, Mansell explains that Kohl's needs to infuse excitement back into the merchandising, marketing and promotional pitch.

By contrast, Eddie Lampert of Sears approaches the problem in finance terms, citing the issue as a "profit problem, not a liquidity issue nor an asset problem," the store notes. However, Home Textiles Today explains that fixing the finances is not tantamount to fixing all problems.

"Kohl's will figure out its problems. Its over-emphasis on percentage-off promotions is maxed out and needs to be adjusted," the site writes. "But Sears is a different story altogether. Kohl's knows that if it fixes the store, the finances will follow. Sears wants to fix the finances. Period."

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 3:08 am .

Technology is allowing both online and in-store retail merchandising efforts to reach more consumers in new and innovative ways.

Recently, discussions concerning the growing use of mobile devices among shoppers have spurred retailers to develop store-specific applications that can act as personal shopping aides – helping consumers research, locate and purchase the products they need.

Now, retailers are putting their large stores of customer data to further use through predictive analytics. While one technology company rolled out a point-of-sale game earlier this year that prompts customers to offer their information to stores, other companies are working to deliver targeted messages.

Point-of-sale systems are using big data to give consumers messages and offers at the point of purchase that will hopefully influence or prompt them to return to the store and make further purchases, the website Wired explains.

While these technologies may still be best applicable for larger retailers, devices that target small businesses may not be far behind, and until then entrepreneurs can focus on targeting with promotions via separate channels.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 2:06 am .

Ecommerce retailers have come under fire lately from brick-and-mortar store operations, as well as legislators, who consider the companies' exclusion from requiring customers to pay sales tax an unfair advantage.

The poster child of this battle has been online retail giant Amazon, which has been sued by a number of states, including Texas, for failing to pay sales tax. However, the company is seeking to rectify the problem through an agreement with Virginia.

According to Internet Retailer, Amazon is planning to invest $135 million in two new distribution centers in Virginia. The agreement outlines that Amazon will begin collecting sales tax from Virginia customers as early as September 2013, and the decision is likely to be followed by agreements in Indiana and Tennessee.

"Amazon is very grateful to Gov. McDonnell for his focus on Virginia jobs and for his efforts to work with other governors toward national resolution of the sales tax issue this year," said Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global policy, according to the source.

The legislation would not only apply to companies with in-state facilities, however. E-retailers who operate out-of-state but sell in-state would still be required to collect sales tax from Virginia shoppers.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 2:03 am .

The Canadian retail sector is off to a bright start in 2012, with a Statistics Canada report released on Thursday noting sales were up during the first month of the year.

While January sales didn't quite meet the expectations of economists, they were up 0.5 percent to C$38.9 billion. Many industry experts projected an overall sales gain of 1.8 percent for the first month of 2012, a number which the sector couldn't meet.

"Canadian consumers are expected to slow down spending habits in the months and years to come, according to economists, as they manage their record-high household debt loads," Nasdaq notes. "Consumer spending helped Canada's economy recover faster than most of its Group of Seven peers following the financial crisis, powered by record-low borrowing rates."

Categories doing particularly well include general merchandise stores, retail department chains and apparel.

The retail sector has similarly been improving in the United States, with many experts anticipating a boom in sales around the Easter holiday.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Sunday, March 25th, 2012 at 9:46 am .

In the world of online marketing, social media is a new popular channel – every retail merchant wants to develop their social presence and have Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels. However, simply creating profiles isn't enough, asserts industry expert Steve Cohen, there is a great deal of optimization that must be done before merchants will see big results.

"How you're using social media should really mirror how your customers purchase their products from you," he explains. "In line with this, retailers should understand what their customers are looking for in order to optimize their social media offerings and how they communicate with them through social media."

For example, retailers could take a look at which products are selling well, then offer discounts on them to social media fans, providing existing followers with value and others with an incentive to subscribe to the brand on Facebook, Twitter or whichever social site they use.

Many retailers are quickly integrating social media into store operations. If they aren't leveraging the platform as an online shopping platform, they may be using it for customer service or to get feedback on products and services.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, March 22nd, 2012 at 9:59 am .