ETD: 913 How to set up a new store; Phishing; Online TV advertising

E-Tailer's Digest etd_post at gapent.com
Wed Aug 17 22:23:56 GMT 2005


  E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the  Retailer
  Issue #0913           August 18, 2005
  George Matyjewicz, Moderator         mailto:georgem at gapent.com
  Published by:  GAP Enterprises, Ltd.  http://www.etailersdigest.com
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   CONTENTS
  [1]  Greetings
  [2]  How to set up a new store
  [3]  Phishing
  [4]  Online TV advertising

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  [1]  Greetings.
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Hi All:

A wholesaler client is setting up new stores and wanted some help on how to 
do so, and the related costs.  I gave them the information, and thought 
this would be a good topic for E-Tailer's Digest.  Let's see your input.

In the old days fishing meant going to the lake with your rod and catching 
some fish.  Today's "phishing" is not the same - it's very dangerous.  Find 
out what to do to protect yourself.

With the use of high speed broadband, the Internet suddenly got faster.  No 
longer do you have to wait for screens on your 28.8 modem (only few of us 
were around long enough to use 14.4).  With high speed comes new 
opportunities.  Soon you may see TV ads and the related movies.  Doesn't 
sound too exciting to me.

Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.

Sincerely


George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com

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  [2]  How to set up a new store
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A wholesale client called me and said they were going to open retail 
stores, and asked what they should do.  My first reply was to see a 
psychiatrist. ;-) Then I got to thinking, this is a good topic for our list 
members.  So, if you had to set up a new store selling ladies apparel, what 
would you do?  Let's assume the store would be 2,000 square feet and one 
POS register.  How would you determine what is needed and estimate the costs?

Some thoughts:

1.  Technology - cost of hardware, software, polling, back office. etc.
2.  Fixtures - racks for clothes, counters, etc.
3.  Limited back room storage (you don't want to waste your selling floor).
4.  Decorating - walls, floors, windows, etc.
5.  Merchandise - how do you determine how much to stock initially?  What 
merchandise?
6.  Advertising - where, when, how much?

I gave them my thoughts, and am curious what you would do. Reply even if 
you can only answer one thing, e.g., technology.

George

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  [3]  Phishing
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I received a notice from The Wall Street Journal Online who wants to 
educate their subscribers about the increasingly prevalent online scam 
commonly known as "phishing."  It was an interesting message, and worth 
discussing here.

Phishing, simply, is a scam in which fraudsters "fish" for personal 
information by pretending to be a legitimate company. Typically, a phisher 
sends an email or pop-up message that appears to be from a company or brand 
that you trust, such as a bank or credit card issuer, or even Dow Jones or 
The Wall Street Journal, in an attempt to obtain sensitive information from 
you.  A phish attempt often threatens that your account is in jeopardy and 
asks you to validate, confirm or update information, such as your 
subscriber or credit card information.  Phishers usually disguise the 
"from" address of their emails and present you with links to Web sites that 
appear to be legitimate, but when you reply to that email or click on those 
links, you are directed to the phisher.   Yet you think you are at the 
legitimate site.

Some things to consider when you get such a notice:

o  Call the company to deal with your account over the telephone, not in 
reply to an e-mail.

o  Instead of linking to the site using the URL provided, go to it as you 
normally would, and update your information the way you normally would.

o  NEVER give out your password, login, security code on your cards, or any 
other sensitive data.

A little common sense goes a long way.

George

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  [4]  Online TV advertising
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Forecasts calling for online advertising to continue to grow in 
double-digit figures for some time to come now take into account the 
inevitable arrival of video commercials. Recent innovations such as 
Google's  video search and similar technology from both Yahoo and AOL, seem 
to portend the imminent arrival of such commercials.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau said online advertising spending reached 
US$9.6 billion in 2004, a 33 percent increase over the previous year, and 
is on pace to continue that rapid growth.

Underscoring the arrival of rich-media ads, the IAB in May released a draft 
of its first-ever set of creative guidelines for broadband advertising. The 
voluntary guidelines are meant to offer both Web publishers and content 
owners and marketers some common ground on how and when such ads should appear.

The potential upside for the Internet  is enormous: Marketers pumped $70 
billion into TV ads last year in the U.S. alone.  A lot of that may soon go 
to the Web.

"The TV audience continues to fragment," said PricewaterhouseCoopers New 
Media Group Chair Tom Hyland. "Add the growth of broadband in the home, 
which enables advertisers to deliver rich media, and brand advertisers have 
a new mass audience to target. The economics are too compelling for 
marketers to ignore."

Still, analysts say users shouldn't expect to see the same ads that appear 
on "Desperate Housewives" showing up in their browser window. Instead, 
marketers are hard at work on using the inherent power of the Web as a tool 
for personalization to create video commercials that literally speak to 
individual users.

"Video commercials will spread online, but the successful ones won't be 
much like traditional TV commercials," Bruce Kasanoff, president of 
marketing firm Now Possible, told the E-Commerce Times.

Instead, Kasanoff said, the ads will be more likely to interact with 
viewers than "talk at them." Web commercials will also be more entertaining 
because of the creative freedom the Internet affords.

Eventually, such ads will be "dynamically generated," with the same 
commercials appearing slightly different to individual viewers based on 
when and where they're seeing it and basic demographic information, 
Kasanoff added.

The IAB notes that advertisers are turning to the Internet more and more 
because it's the one medium that has developed an instant method of 
measuring effectiveness. Rather than relying on subjective notions of brand 
awareness, Web ads can be evaluated in real time to determine if they're 
prompting users to take action by clicking to a Web site or requesting 
information about a product or service.

Still, analysts say it's too early to know how such ads will be distributed 
online. Ads might appear before content loads, or they might show up 
halfway through a video clip or other media, when users are more likely to 
be paying attention. Or they might come at the end of a music video or in 
between rounds of an interactive, multi-player video game.

Much will likely depend on how users react. So far, the early forays into 
online video commercials have not been met with much in the way of outcry, 
Enderle noted.

Details at...
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/45272.html

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