Are you in the greater Los Angeles area? If so, we invite you to join ERA and Electronic Retailer magazine for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres in Santa Monica. This event is free for ERA members and retailers. Non-member suppliers pay only $99 (credit this fee to your ERA membership when you join within 30 days of the event). To RSVP, e-mail Katie White at kwhite@retailing.org. The Casa del Mar, Hotel by the Sea is the picturesque setting for an evening of building new relationships and catching up with industry colleagues and friends. While we encourage you to let loose and have a good time, plan on having a designated driver because we’d hate for you to end up in a situation like the man in this video!

For many marketers and retailers, there is something even scarier than a DUI—and that’s a recession! If you can’t join ERA in Santa Monica on Wednesday, please join us remotely from wherever you may be for Thursday’s webinar: Recession-proof Your Business. Sponsored by West Corporation, the webinar will be held from 2:30-3:30 EST and is free for ERA members and retailers; non-member suppliers may join for $99. For more information, please contact Ashley Cavell by e-mail at acavell@retailing.org or via phone at 703-908-1020. 

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As I prepare for this year’s ERA Annual Awards Show under the call to arms “Retailers Rock,” I’ve been on an iTunes download binge worthy of Barry, Jack Black’s dogmatic record clerk character in the movie “High Fidelity.” A few classic gems from the Stones and The Who, a nice sprinkling of three-chord bliss from the likes of X and the Ramones, even a download of The Tubes’ first gem, which provided the soundtrack for my first job as a pump jockey at 16. Maybe this latter disc was prescient for what I would go on to do for a living for it contained the Zappa-esque, “What Do You Want From Life?” Sample lyrics:

“What do you want from life?
To get cable TV and watch it every night…
Well, you can’t have that, but if you’re an American citizen you are entitled to:
A heated kidney shaped pool,
A microwave oven—don’t watch the food cook,
A Dyna-Gym—I’ll personally demonstrate it in the privacy of your own home,
A king-size titanic unsinkable Molly Brown waterbed with polybendum,
A foolproof plan and an airtight alibi,
Real simulated Indian jewelry,
A Gucci shoetree,
A year’s supply of antibiotics…”

You get the idea. Yes, this was the ’70s and drugs were prevalent in the workplace. But it also points out how personal each person’s quest for nostalgia is and why, despite the best efforts to tap into a collective consciousness for the good ‘old days, advertisers so frequently fail in their attempts to reference music in television advertising.

Personally, I don’t care if I ever hear another cut from Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” in this lifetime. That “Now dare you go again, you say you want your freedom” thing has been warbling on the radio ad naseum since both Steve Nicks and I actually had abdominal muscles. Nor is Led Zeppelin going to make me ever buy a Cadillac. And please spare me the Ameriprise and Cialis ads with well-heeled, frisky Centrum Silver Surfer-types frolicking on the beach (Psst: they’re havin’ sex tonight!) I’m an American. I want something new. And shiny.

Nobody serves this up better than Apple that consistently introduces new candied-like objects of desire accompanied by fresh cuts that springboard out of their commercials to become the soundtrack of our lives—today. Whether it’s introducing U2’s “Vertigo” or breaking Yael Naim’s “New Soul, “ they’ve got it down. Heck, my mother—who is in her 70s—bought the new Coldplay as a result of their most recent ad.

I imagine the younger generation—the one I’m a guest speaker to annually who have informed me that the Geico caveman spots are the apex of good advertising—would site U2 and Coldplay as contemptible examples of sellout bands. Meanwhile, my son listens to Tom Petty, while I favor Snow Patrol. Bottom line: With easy access to an infinite catalogue, tidy generational generalities don’t work anymore. I lived through the Gerald Ford Presidency, disco and “Family Feud” once and it was enough, thank you. So, even though the juice in my gin may be of the joint variety, I need it to move to Amy Winehouse, not April Wine. Hit me.

Rick Petry is ERA’s interim-CEO

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There’s no denying that the main objective for any e-commerce sales or retail marketing executive is to maximize the total value of visitor traffic on their site, simply put— turning web browsers into buyers and clicks into cash. Search is certainly leveling the playing field as well, so how do companies stand out from the crowd? And why are some sites still failing to deliver compelling and relevant content to their customer base?

In today’s saturated marketplace, retailers can no longer rely on the traditional marketing techniques and media vehicles to manage customer interaction and drive home sales. In order to achieve greater web interaction optimization, e-commerce and retail sites must recognize the inherent value of social behavioral merchandising and effectively increase the relevance of communications by automatically promoting the most relevant products to each visitor, thereby maximizing conversion rates and average order values.

By making websites more customer-centric via these “recommendation engines,” retailers can essentially optimize customer interaction through improved content and messaging based on a customer’s specific needs and behavioral patterns.

We all know who Amazon.com is. Besides the millions of SKUs at Amazon.com, the site is easy to use and “steers” browsers in the right direction when they need help (recommendations, user reviews, etc.). The addition of recommendations from other customers can build a sense of trust and community between new and returning customers—and probably better than any 17-year old working the floor at Border’s Books.

Given the wide variety of tools available in the market, online retailers must familiarize themselves with the different points of customer contact and approaches towards reaching interaction optimization. The Customer Interaction Cycle, shown below, depicts the many different points—from initial landing page through transaction—where collective intelligence can be applied to maximize value.

Rolf Elmer is CEO of Avail Intelligence

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According to ERA’s most recently commissioned paper, Mapping the Path to Purchase, Forrester Research suggests that television drives online sales. Indeed, 44 percent of the study’s respondents went to retail to find a product they saw on an infomercial or home shopping channel and more than one-third of consumers visit engines (eBay, Yahoo, Google, etc.) to compare prices, with more than 50 percent of those making a purchase.

But wait, there’s more; now it’s the consumers themselves who are creating pathways and signposts. It’s interesting, looking at the apparent quick rise of the “consumer influencer.” It seems just yesterday when branding was king and PR, marketing, research and agencies pushed sales. But today, through the power of blogs, online communities, forums, boards, videos on YouTube, Facebook and more, customers are definitely in charge.

I wonder what retailers think about how this will all shake out? How do retailers leverage those consumer influencers?

Sieglinde Friedman is ERA’s vice president of strategy

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This past week, I attended a conference for retailers. Most of them were from the traditional brick-and-mortar world—unlike the virtual retailers I’m used to working with. Maybe everyone was just having a bad week, but I sensed a great deal of fear from this group. I shared my observation with an advertising agency and a media buying company —separately. Surprisingly, they gave me the same explanation. They pointed out that many of these retailers had multiple jobs within a few short years and it wasn’t by choice. In other words, with decreased sales comes pink slips. With our economy in the toilet, it’s no wonder that fear permeated the conference. And with fear comes caution.

Armed with this knowledge, I approached a few of the retailers to ask them what new marketing techniques they were using to combat slow sales. Much to my surprise, I learned that most were adopting a “hunker down mentality.” Although they were interested in nontraditional advertising methods, they cited a lack of time, knowledge and most importantly, the lack of confidence as barriers.

Part of me had to laugh because as an industry, we have made great strides in building consumer confidence in electronic retailing, but apparently we missed a step. We overlooked the importance of helping traditional retailers understand how e-retailing can increase their sales. E-retailers have been using affiliate marketing, social networking and multiple channels to not only reach new customers, but also actively engage and retain them.

Think about the chicken and the egg—if you’re a retailer reading this—do you try new things in a sluggish economy or is this the time to hunker down? I think we would all agree with a major advertiser who said, “When times are good you should advertise. When times are bad, you must advertise.” Perhaps the better question is not if should you advertise, but how should you advertise?

I invite all retailers to join me and my direct response friends in Miami at ERA’s eRetailer Summit, where we will continue this discussion and help you learn not only which risks are worth taking, but also how to take them.

Barbara Tulipane is ERA’s president and CEO

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It was bad enough when a large brick-and-mortar retailer told members of Congress at last week’s hearing on Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) that online retailers have an unfair advantage over companies like his. Indeed, the entire argument surrounding SST is one of evenhandedness across selling channels. The debate is complex and often touches on seemingly contradictory or ambiguous points. But what really floored me was when a Congressman in support of this retailer’s testimony remarked that he missed the days when he could walk into a store and yep, you guessed it, “everyone knew his name.”

If Congress is really concerned about a level playing field, then perhaps they should recognize that the Internet allows that small main street retailer to compete against the larger retailers through direct-to-consumer tools. Electronic retailers use these tools to create a conversation with their customers. In fact, when I log onto my skin care provider’s site, they greet me by name, know my preferences and assist me in learning about products relevant to my skin. Now that Congressman harkens back to the old days when a retailer knew their customer on a first-name basis; today the Internet provides this experience.

As technology permits a myriad of consumer shopping options, and if the argument is that remote retailers should collect sales tax to level the playing field, then I encourage Congress to ensure that Internet retailers have unfettered access to their consumers with a free and open Internet. But that’s another posting…

-Barbara Tulipane, ERA president and CEO

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In my role as editor of the e-weekly news from ERA, I end up reading a lot of articles about retailing statistics (I know, heady, glamorous stuff) and there are two things that keep popping up: retail sales generally are growing at around 4.8 percent while online purchases are making up a bigger percentage of sales this holiday season (20 percent to $39 billion, according to Jupiter Research). If you extrapolate that to figure out total holiday sales, we know that Americans will be spending $195 billion. But there is one factor that is lurking in the background that throws the whole equation into turmoil. Thirty-three percent of consumers planned to buy gift cards to the tune of a staggering total of $26.3 billion

You may be asking yourself, “Why should that matter?” Well, for one thing, $26.3 billion is not being recorded as part of the holiday shopping season, because that revenue is not recognized until the gift cards are redeemed. Or to look at it another way, the actual total collected by retailers if you throw in the gift card number will be $221.3 billion. So if $195 billion without gift cards represents a 4.8 percent increase, the math says that $221.3 billion represents a 19 percent increase in revenues over last year. Of course, that doesn’t include gift cards from last year. So while the analysis of the holiday shopping season is all glum and foreboding, the nay saying should be taken with a $26.3 billion grain of salt. (more…)

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  After 16 years in direct response, the word “retailer” is being used by ERA as a catch-all for marketers and retailers alike. I don’t know about you, but this confuses me. For as many years as I can remember, a marketer was quite different than a retailer. In DR, the company that sold direct to the consumer via TV, radio or online was a marketer. The core reason DR exists is because inventors used DR as a platform to launch their products and build awareness because it was impossible (and still is) to get into retail. Ask anyone who’s been around, that’s the basis of this industry. The retailer has always been the monster that DR was used to get on the shelf at Target, Wal-Mart, Costco, Bed Bath and Beyond—bricks and mortars if you will. With that, just because a retailer uses the online space and uses direct-to-consumer tactics to increase traffic and sell goods doesn’t suddenly turn them into a DR marketer, does it? And vice-versa for the DR marketers such as Sylmark, Savvier, Beach Body, Guthy Renker and the like; they aren’t suddenly transformed into retailers because their products eventually end up in stores or are available online.

I don’t know about you, but I find this not only confusing, but incredibly perplexing. Why has the definition suddenly changed? Or better yet, has it? And why by an association? No one I know has adjusted their vocabulary to match. Oddly enough, just a few years ago, ERA could care less about retailers. To accept them by calling all marketers in this space “retailers” is muddying the very existence of direct response marketing. Has the word marketer been eliminated from our vernacular in direct response due to ERA using it incorrectly or misinterpreting the definition? I’ve been in meetings where seasoned DR executives have all said “It’s marketer not retailer.” (more…)

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