A new report from comScore further highlights the importance of operating a website. According to the measurement firm, shoppers who visit a manufacturer's website spend 37 percent more on that brand in retail stores than those who have not visited their home page.

"Marketers currently invest millions of dollars in their brand websites, and the results of this study confirm the importance of this investment. Brand websites can attract and influence the behavior of the most valuable segments of any brand’s franchise," said comScore vice president Mike Zeman.

Clearly, consumers who spend the time visiting a brand's website are also the ones that would be more engaged by it and spend additional money on the company's products. If retailers don't have websites, this adds further incentive for them to fix that folly as soon as possible.

This is especially important considering the sheer number of consumers shopping online. A separate comScore report suggests that ecommerce spending hit all-time highs over the 2011 shopping season and is positioned to keep growing.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, February 3rd, 2012 at 2:59 am .

Retail merchants in New Hampshire may be able to breathe a collective sigh of relief, with state legislators fighting to implement a new rule that would limit swipe fees, Convenience Store News reports.

Called New Hampshire House Bill 1319, the bill specifically states "no bank shall charge a person doing business in this state who accepts a credit card or debit card issued by the bank as payment for goods or services an interchange fee, or 'swipe fee,' that exceeds 1 percent of the payment."

Swipe fees are a common compliant among retailers both in New Hampshire and nationwide. Rep. Johen Hikel himself owns an auto repair shop and is forced to pay between 0.65 percent and 4.76 percent for each credit card transaction. Moreover, retailers frequently only find out how much they are paying when they receive the bill.

The Durbin Amendment led to reduced swipe fees nationwide. Many financial institutions tried to circumvent the bill by passing the fees onto the consumer for other services, such as charging debit accounts for making purchases through point-of-sale software.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, February 3rd, 2012 at 2:57 am .

For retail merchants, one of the core ingredients to success is offering products at competitive prices. While providing a satisfactory customer experience or appealing to a niche audience, modern consumers nowadays are even more conscious of cost. Thanks to the internet and mobile devices, it has also become easier to find the best prices for products and services.

The top retailers know the importance of offering competitive prices and are the most likely to experiment with different cost points, a new survey from Black Lotus suggests. According to the data, the top 20 most-visited retail websites change their prices approximately 30 times more often than smaller websites.

"The top retailers are being very strategic in how they approach pricing," says Rodrigo Carvahlo, the CEO and founder of BlackLocus. "They're using loss leaders to draw in customers, while increasing prices on other products to ensure that their margins are there."

If consumers are paying so much attention to the prices of products, it's crucial that retail merchants do the same. While it may not necessarily be the best idea to get in price wars – this is especially the case for smaller companies – it's worth the effort to know which products are selling and at what prices.

By knowing current market prices and inventory conditions, retailers can capitalize on their competitors' weaknesses. For example, if a product sells out somewhere, merchants could raise the prices on these products and profit on them. Conversely, they could consider lowering costs if they have an opportunity to do so without taking a loss.

"Pricing is increasingly important as consumers become more sophisticated about using the web to compare prices. A recent survey found that 38 percent of smartphone owners said that they used their smartphone to find the lowest price on an item during the holidays," Internet Retailer notes.

Keeping up with prices of competitors can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are technology solutions that can be used to monitor prices at other retail brands more efficiently.

While lower prices will certainly guarantee more sales, it's also important to remember that it doesn't translate into greater revenue. Several retailers recently revised their projections after deep holiday discounts affected their bottom lines.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 10:05 am .

For online retail merchants, engagement is everything. The more people who click on ads translates into a greater number of website visitors which leads to higher conversion rates. It's easy to understand why many brands get fixated on using advertising tools that provide the best click-through rates.

New data from Marin Software further highlights the importance of using mobile devices as marketing tools. Whereas desktop computers had a click-through rate of only 0.95 percent, smartphones and tablets were observed at the much higher 1.25 and 1.31 percent, respectively.

"Tablets and smartphones, while still in the early stages of adoption relative to desktop computers, are showing strong and accelerating gains in search shares, while delivering quality performance with higher than average click-through rates," Marin's report explains.

Mobile devices can be used for a variety of purposes. Smartphone-optimized ads and apps can be utilized to engage consumers, while retail brands could leverage them as payment processing and customer assistance tools.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 10:04 am .

While 2011 wasn't the year that mobile payments hit mainstream, it did seem as if payment technology was heading that way – Google rolled out its mobile Wallet App, PayPal announced its intent to enter the arena and several credit card processors announced mobile payment plans.

What's holding merchants from jumping at these services? According to VentureBeat, it may the cost of integration. While mobile payments may become the de facto point-of-sale solutions some day, the cost-to-benefit rate simply isn't worth it to retailers right now.

"Today's retail systems are so inflexible, the integration of any third-party systems will result in a huge IT expense for implementation," the technology blog explains. "The customization required so that all components of the point-of-sale system … interact with a new mobile payment platform without disrupting the operation of the existing systems is cumbersome … due to complex software integration."

Some retail brands are beginning to dabble in mobile payments. For example, Office Depot just teamed with PayPal to enable customers to pay using their phone numbers.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 10:02 am .

In order for mobile commerce to be truly successful, consumers need to feel safe entering confidential data – such as their credit card and bank information – into their smartphones. However, this continues to be a key hindrance to the proliferation of the payment platform.

A recent survey conducted by NetQin Mobile found that 73 percent of Americans were aware of security threats to smartphones. As a result, they fear their phones could be an easy way for criminals to gain access to private information. More than three-quarters of respondents (78 percent) were concerned a criminal would end up with their stolen phones.

There are other issues as well, such as the ability of unwanted organizations or people monitoring consumer location.

"Consumers also were concerned that they might be tracked via their smartphones," Internet Retailer notes, citing the report. "Ninety-five percent of respondents believe at least one entity can track their locations, though there is a variety of opinions about who that entity is."

More than 91 million Americans own smartphone devices, according to comScore data, highlighting the potential mobile commerce audience.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 10:01 am .

A number of retailers struggled to meet their annual projections after deep discounts during the holiday season negatively impacted their bottom line. J.C. Penney, however, was apparently not among those retailers – that department store is now marking down the prices at all of its stores by at least 40 percent.

J.C. Penney has traditionally launched a number of different sales each year. However, this strategy may be encouraging consumers to wait for sales rather than buying now, which was not the intended consequence. Now, the brand will hold three tiers of permanent sales – an "every day" low pricing, a "monthly value" and a "best price" sale on the first and third Friday each month.

"Penney's plan comes at a time when stores are struggling to wean shoppers off the profit-busting bargains that they have come to expect in a weak economy," USA Today notes. "The move is risky because shoppers who love to bargain hunt may be turned off by missing the thrill they might get from feeling like they're getting a deal."

Retailers need to plan their promotions in advance to avoid taking losses on them. Strategies such as the one being employed by J.C. Penney may help retailers structure their promotional efforts more efficiently.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 9:59 am .

Consumers are expected to shop online more in 2012, preferring the peace and quiet of their own living room to the hustle and bustle of brick-and-mortar stores.

According to a survey of 94 retail brands, 63 percent of multichannel merchants anticipate a sharp increase in online sales through 2015. Conversely, fewer than 10 percent predict their online sales will decline during the same time frame.

"We find the number of retailers committed to stores as a major growth strategy declining and the need to do a good job integrating the customer experience across all channels more and more of an imperative," notes the report, which was conducted by Retail Systems Research.

By 2015, nearly half of retailers – 41 percent – will be earning between 10 and 24 percent of their sales through ecommerce, up from 19 percent as of 2011. The number of businesses earning between 25 and 74 percent of their sales online will undergo similar growth, jumping from 3 to 22 percent.

Conversely, retail merchants earning less than 10 percent of their sales online will decline from 68 percent in 2011 to 26 percent in 2015. It's clear that many retailers no longer perceive ecommerce as an added benefit – it's a necessity to maximize sales.

Simply shifting online isn't enough, either. The respondents that Retail Systems Research noted as being "winners" explained that keeping up with advances in technology is crucial to broadening sales reach. Over the next few years, that means going online, but there are always relevant technologies being developed. Through 2015 and beyond, retailers must consider how new platforms such as social networks and mobile commerce will affect their operations.

Other challenges will affect retailers as they shift gears from physical stores to online shops, including managing internet inventories, dealing with the ease of comparison shopping, cart abandonment and planning for uncertain customer demand.

Whatever the challenge, the future looks bright for the retail industry. The past two years have seen many merchants recover from the 2008 recession and according to the National Retail Federation, sales are positioned to continue to improve throughout this year.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 at 3:03 am .

When retailers think about growth strategies, they often come up with things they can directly control – the implementation of new technology, rolling out new policies or launching new products. It's crucial they realize these are just means to achieving the objective growth, and that they shouldn't be goals in and of themselves.

"The real news for 2012 is that successful retailers will be focusing their attention where it has belonged all along: on the consumer," Forbes explains. "Acquiring new customers is part of that equation, as is building tighter bonds of loyalty with those who already know (and love) your brand."

New products, discounts and policies can help, though. These are the means through which retail merchants can strengthen their relationship with consumers – a new product gives them something to get excited about, while a more lenient return policy may improve customer satisfaction. It's the small things that lead to growth.

That said, it's crucial retailers keep their profit margins in mind. Many merchants offered deep discounts during the holiday season and had to reduce their annual profit forecasts.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 at 3:00 am .

Fed up with long lines in-store or on the phone, many customers are turning to online communities to get answers to their retail problems.

A new survey conducted by Forrester Research suggests 27 percent of American consumers sought help via online communities in 2011, which is up from the mere 27 percent who did so two years ago. This behavior was especially common among Generation X (41 percent) and Generation Y (39 percent) consumers.

"When consumers seek customer service assistance through online communities, such as consumer forums, consumers typically post a question about a concern they have about a brand or product, and may get responses from other consumers who have experienced similar concerns," Internet Retailer notes, citing the report.

Retailers need to be cognizant of these online communities to maximize the support process. Simply being a part of forums or message boards shows that brands care about their customers and aren't letting complaints or service questions go unanswered.

On that note, retail brands should similarly be operating a profile on social networks to answer any inquiries.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 at 2:58 am .