Odin Collie

Your store, which was thriving till recently, witnesses dwindling sales out of the blue…… The first assumption is that this is nothing but a passing trend. However as the business continues to erode, you realize you must act promptly to shore it up. And after a quick review, what you conclude is that your retail store deserves nothing but a makeover.

Today, society is highly image-conscious. Everything is judged first by how it looks, even a retail outlet! Further, in this changing retail marketplace, consumers’ likes and dislikes change overnight. If you want to retain your share and fight sluggish sales, your shop ought to be more customer-friendly, more modern and more competitive. So keep your eyes open and always welcome change. … Now you must be wondering from where to start that overhaul? Let us help you a bit.

1. Start with the storefront: Do any of these describe your retail business?

? Your store is on the high street or in the primary business borough of your city, but people don’t visit.

? When asked, they said they didn’t notice your shop.

? They noticed, but weren’t interested in walking in.

When consumers walk past your store, you have got only a few seconds to draw their attention. With the right look, image, product and presentation, your store can excite your customers and lure them into buying. So make sure your retail outlet, and primarily it’s storefront, is attractive enough. With some novel ideas, a dull window can be transformed into a dynamic, unique or contemporary window display. Ideally, displays must be used to maximum advantage, showcasing the newest products or highlighting the season’s theme.  Read more...

Many online business owners who fail to make online income do so for various reasons and those that succeed do so in various ways. Here are tips and strategies that can help you achieve success with your online business.

1. Ensure you go into a market where money is currently being spent. If you are undecided on how to start an online business have a look around on the internet to get ideas from other successful business entrepreneurs.

Ideally you need to target markets where you can sell products that are always in demand. A few examples would be weight loss, online dating, make money at home, household pets, anti-ageing, golf, and stop smoking.

2. You need not worry if you do not have a product of your own to sell as there are plenty of affiliate programs that you can join. As an affiliate marketer you will be paid a commission to sell other people’s products. There are numerous affiliate programs to join and products available for you to sell. You will be one step ahead of many other affiliate marketers if you purchase the product yourself and learn about it so that you can share your knowledge when you market it.

3. You will be in a position to provide useful information in the form of pre sell web pages and a review page if you have first hand knowledge of the product. This will help increase your online income as many people are looking for information on a product before they purchase it.  Read more...

Introduction

Retailing involves all activities incidental to selling to ultimate consumer for their personnel family and household use. It does this by organizing their availability on a relatively large scale and supplying them to a customers on arelatively smallscale. Retailer is any person/organization instrumental in reaching the goods or merchandise oer services to the end users.Retailer is a must and cannot be eliminated.

The Indian retailing industry is becoming intensely competitive, as more and more payers are Vying for the same set of customers. The major retail players are Pantaloon Retail, Shoppers Stop, Reliance,etc..,

Retailing is one of the biggest sectors and it is witnessing revolution in India. The new entrant in retailing in India signifies the beginning of retail revolution. India’s retail market is expected to grow tremendously in next few years. According to AT Kearney, The Windows of Opportunity shows that Retailing in India was at opening stage in 1995 and now it is in peaking stage in 2006. India’s retail market is expected to grow tremendously in next few years. India shows US$330 billion retail market that is expected to grow 10% a year, with modern retailing just beginning. India ranks first in 2005. In fact, in 2005 and 2006, India is the most compelling opportunity for retailers, because now India is in peaking stage.

This window of opportunity is useful for executives who plan their market-specific strategies; the four stages or the lifecycle of this industry is as as follows:
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In the past, small business can only focus on local market due
to limited financial resources. Now, a very small business or
even a home business can sell worldwide over Internet. Due to
limited financial resources, small business cannot conduct
massive online campaign in very popular websites or generate
overseas publicity in news. However, there are still many low
cost to free methods to promote your website.

This article offers discuss several practical tactics.

1. Search Engine Optimization

Positioning your website near the top of search engines are
essential. Nearly 85% Internet users use search engines to
search for information. To acquire top rankings, you need to
perform search engine optimization. Search engine optimization
refers to the technique of making your web pages search engine
friendly so that search engines believe your website is more
relevant to your competitors. Consequently, your site has a
better chance to gain high search engine ranking.

Search engine optimization, however, requires extensive
knowledge and time. If you can set a US$1,500-$3,500 budget, you
possibly can find out a good company to help you.

If you prefer to do it yourself, Agog Digital Marketing Strategy
Limited offers 7 practical search
engine optimization advice to assist your optimization
journey.

2. Froogle Promotion

Google introduced a beta version of their Froogle online
shopping search engine. Unlike their well known search service,

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SALES ARE DOWN, so what do retailers do – they have a sale, or they go out and aggressively advertise. Why? Because everyone else does, so it must work. But let’s just think about that.

A lot of retailers come up to us and say that sales are down because no-one is walking into the store. When asked ‘how do you measure this?’ Most of the time, retailers don’t measure the amount of foot traffic that they are getting. A simple solution (yes, we admit, not the most accurate) is to get an electronic door counter.

So once you start to measure how many people are walking through your doors, have a look at your marketing campaign. What are you currently doing? If your sales are down, what are the current promotional activities you have in place? If you are just placing an advertisement in the local paper or putting out a catalogue a couple of times a year, then – guess what – you are missing out on communicating to your customers in over 60 ways!

Generating heat

Lead generation – getting the customers through the door – is a very simple exercise:


1. Set some sales and profit targets for the financial year by month.


2. Now develop a marketing planner which maps out the key events of the year.


3. Brainstorm all of the ways that you can get a customer. Advertising, direct mail, letter box drop, spruikers. Whatever you feel will get people in the door.
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