ETD: 935 New POS Software; First Holiday Shopping Weekend
Sets a Blistering Pace; This Holiday Season Luxury Shoppers Will Take
the Lead in Internet Shopping
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Tue Nov 29 13:11:26 GMT 2005
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0935 November 29, 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] New POS Software
[3] First Holiday Shopping Weekend Sets a Blistering Pace
[4] This Holiday Season Luxury Shoppers Will
Take the Lead in Internet Shopping
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
I would like to thank Josh Dill for that
excellent special report on "The Hidden Costs of
Credit Card Processing." It provided us with
great insight into the world of credit card
processing. One of our list members already
called Josh and learned that he was paying way
too much for his card processing. I hope to have
more details for the next digest.
In issue 933 I mentioned that I recently came
across a new POS product that links to
Quickbooks. Today Steven Owens (no relation to
Jan Owens) gives us more information on this
product. What do you think? Is it something they should pursue?
Black Friday and the first holiday weekend seemed
to be a big hit. Many people were drawn to store
because of the huge discounts. Here in NJ there
were fights in some of the stores. Let's hope
the buying continues throughout the season.
On a related note, Pam Danziger has a survey that
says luxury shoppers will take the lead with
e-tailing. Time to review your offerings eh?
How do you do this past weekend?
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, LLC
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] New POS Software
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I have a friend who has developed a new POS app
that links to a certain business accounting
package and he is wondering if their is a market for it.
The first system he developed is a full-fledged
point of sale kiosk system targeted at a very
specific industry, working with a startup company.
Based on what he learned in building the first
system, he built a quick prototype of a simpler
app that works, at the moment, with a certain
popular small business accounting package. The
question at hand is whether he should take it
further, productize it and start selling it. My
advice so far has been "yes", but I realize I'm a
bit out of touch. The business lead at the
startup thinks the second app should sell for around $450 per license.
His current version of the second app works like so:
1) Install app, it adds a menu option to the
small business accounting package.
2) The new menu option brings up a dialog that
pulls its user interface (UI) from a web server
specified as part of the app configuration. The
current web store implementation points at the
login page of the user's web store.
3) The user logs in and navigates to the shopping cart order export.
4) When the user clicks a designated button the
app intercepts the data, converts it to an import
format appropriate to the small business
accounting software and feeds it into the accounting software.
In the current version, the HTML form button/link
that exports the shopping cart data has to have a
particular class attribute on the tag to identify
it. The "login & navigate" portion can be pretty
simply automated for a given shopping cart app.
Once you do that you know which button is going
to generate the data, so you don't need the
server end customized beyond those HTML attributes.
My advice to him has been to tackle a few
shopping cart systems that have
well-defined/documented output formats (e.g.
Amazon ) and then build on that. Add new formats
as he goes. If necessary, assuming customer
demand of course, outsource development of custom
screen-scraper code for shopping cart apps that
don't provide a data export option.
I've also recommended that he define a
streamlined XML import format that the screen
scrapers can output to, and that shopping cart
developers can easily output to that if they want
to build in support. I suspect that getting
buy-in from shopping cart developers is a ways
down the road, but it's worth doing now, for his
internal purposes. Instead of tackling each new
format and converting to the finicky data import
format, his client code can convert data to the
streamlined XML format, and then feed that into his standardized data importer.
We recognize that there are some offerings in
this space now, though it's not really clear
from looking at them that they do quite the same
thing. Then again, how much is ever really clear
from looking at software advertisement copy
:-). A cursory scan of the products leads me to
believe that these products are SDKs (software
development kits) targeted at developers,
components that aren't ready to install, but
rather enable developers to more easily develop
custom solutions for businesses.
The solution my friend has is also targeted at
techies, however it's intended to be more of a
ready-to-run solution. Instead of only providing
components that the developer can use to build
the solution, it would provide a complete
solution designed for easy configuration,
re-branding and re-distribution. Something more
suitable to a system integrator (a technically
proficient consultant who selects and installs
solutions) rather than a custom developer.
My friend and I don't quite agree on this last
point. I agree that he should offer good support
for consultants who can provide focused customer
service to businesses. But I think his solution
can and should go that last mile, and be offered
for download and install by any reasonably proficient power user.
It's still very much worth investigating and
seeing if retailers/e-tailers are unhappy with
the current products, and if so, why. What do you think?
--
Steven J. Owens
puff at darksleep.com
"I'm going to make broad, sweeping generalizations and strong,
declarative statements, because otherwise I'll be here all night and
this document will be four times longer and much less fun to read.
Take it all with a grain of salt." - http://darksleep.com/notablog
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
What do you think folks? Is this the type of
product that would be of interest to
etailers/retailers? Or, are there too many
solutions on the market today? Is a $450 price
point good or bad? What would you be looking for
in a software package? Do any of our list members have similar solutions?
BTW, for the techies on the list, Stephen has
some great information at his http://darksleep.com/notablog
George
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[3] First Holiday Shopping Weekend Sets a Blistering Pace
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Reliably as ever, shoppers opened their wallets
for the official start of the retail industry's
Christmas selling season. But strong weekend
sales and throngs of bargain-hunters couldn't
completely quell worries that the season could lose steam.
Discount stores and electronics and
home-furnishings retailers came out swinging.
Customers filled shopping carts with laptop
computers, flat-screen television sets, DVD
players and other hardware purchased at deep discounts.
Thanksgiving weekend sales in stores surged 22%
from a year ago to about $27.9 billion, the
National Retail Federation said yesterday, in
what it called "blockbuster" results. The figure,
based on a survey by the industry group of 4,209
consumers, includes some online sales. The
average weekend shopper spent $302.81.
The NRF doesn't expect the blistering pace to
continue -- it predicts a 6% rise in spending for
the entire 2005 holiday season, just slightly shy
of the 6.7% rise reported for the
November-December period last year. The numbers
underscore the importance of both Thanksgiving
weekend and the season's final weekend to holiday
sales, and the diminishing importance of the days in between.
Last week also brought a surge in spending online
compared with a year ago: On the day after
Thanksgiving, U.S. shoppers spent $305 million on
online purchases, excluding travel, for a 22%
increase over the comparable day a year ago,
according to comScore Networks, a Reston, Va.,
market-research firm. The biggest-volume day
online so far this holiday season came Tuesday,
Nov. 22, when sales climbed to nearly $441
million, 55% ahead of the comparable date a year
earlier, comScore said. Thanksgiving Day was
relatively light this year, with online spending
up only 12% over last year. The biggest wave is
expected on Monday, when millions of people
return to their high-speed Internet connections at work.
For merchants, the numbers are a welcome
departure from expectations of chilly Christmas
sales as recently as a month ago. Few envisioned
that consumers would spend freely, as gasoline
prices and home-heating costs soared; the NRF at
one point predicted a sales increase in the 5%
range. Several companies who tracked the
weekend's robust showing credited the turnaround in prices at the gas pump.
Department stores generally had a poor Christmas
last year, and it isn't clear whether they will
rebound this year. Even so, they reported brisk
sales of down comforters and cashmere sweaters.
Macy's, a unit of Federated Department Stores
Inc., said it offered "slightly" more discounts this year than last.
Luxury retailers, especially those offering items
at entry-level prices, reported brisk sales.
Coach Inc. said it sold out of a $1,800 shearling
coat on Friday, and $4,500 alligator handbags
were going fast. The stores also have sold a lot
of $28 alphabet charms, which clip onto a handbag strap.
At Saks Inc.'s Saks Fifth Avenue, quilted luxury
handbags by Marc Jacobs and Fendi "spy" bags, a
mink version of which sells for $9,450, sold
well. Fine jewelry moved nicely, too, says Ronald
Frasch, vice chairman and chief merchant of Saks.
Promotional levels are about the same as last
year, he said. Saks customers aren't completely
immune to the effects of rising and falling
energy prices, Mr. Frasch says, but he says he is
optimistic. "For our customers there is clearly
more disposable income out there than last year,"
he says. "Bigger Wall Street bonuses have a
bigger impact on our business than high gas prices."
Details at...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113310493321007537.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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[4] This Holiday Season Luxury Shoppers Will
Take the Lead in Internet Shopping
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The internet is an extremely important shopping
source for luxury consumers, ranked either their
second or third favorite place to shop in 11 out
of 15 luxury product categories tracked in Unity
Marketing’s third quarter Luxury Tracking
study. Yet the internet and other non-store
shopping channels account for less than ten
percent of the total retail market, $233.3
billion in 2004 out of the total $2.64 trillion
retail market, excluding automobiles, auto parts
and food service according to the Census Department.
For most retailers the luxury consumer segment
represents their marketing ‘sweet spot,’ because
they shop more frequently and spend more money
when they shop. The same holds true for
e-commerce marketers. Internet holiday gift
shopping by luxury consumers’ will be especially
important this season, when at least half of
luxury consumers are expected to buy gifts online.
Luxury consumers favor internet shopping because
it is easier and more convenient
The primary reason why luxury consumers turn to
the internet is that it makes shopping easier and
more convenient. Fully 82 percent of luxury
consumers agree with the statement, “Internet
shopping has made shopping easier for me.” Some
78 percent agree that the internet “lets me find
exactly what I want at the right price without a
lot of hassles.” The three top features luxury
consumers value are ability to compare prices (73
percent say this is very important); ability to
shop 24/7 (72 percent); and convenience shopping from home (71 percent).
Unity Marketing’s latest survey among luxury
consumers (1,171 luxury consumers with average
income $142.4 k and age 42.9 years) found that
virtually all (94 percent) used the internet in
the third quarter for some e-commerce activity
with purchasing a product online the number one
use (73 percent made an online purchase). A
majority (54 percent) made travel reservations
online and 50 percent purchased a gift in the third quarter.
Other findings in the survey about luxury
consumers’ use of the internet include:
o Internet marketing supports cross-channel
marketing efforts — A pattern of strong
cross-channel shopping was found among luxury
consumers. For example, 43 percent researched an
item online then went to the store to make the
actual purchase. About one-third (35 percent)
saw an item in the store then ordered it
online. Some 20 percent saw an item in the store
then went home and ordered it over the internet,
while an equal percentage (20 percent) researched
an item online then called the company directly to make the purchase.
o Luxury consumers spent on average 5 hours
internet shopping each week — Out of a total of
18.4 hours spent on the internet in a typical
week, the luxury consumers spent 5.2 hours in shopping-related activities.
o Comparison shopping for the best price is
vital use of internet — Despite the fact that
luxury consumers have plenty of money and can
afford to pay full-price, they are aggressive
bargain shoppers. Over two-thirds (67 percent)
use the internet to comparison shop for the best
prices. The ability to compare prices is also
the feature of the internet they rank as the most
important reason why they use the internet for shopping.
This is a semi-custom research service with
subscribers adding specific product categories
and their brands and the brands of five key
competitors to the survey. In addition,
subscribers can add up to six personal questions
to the survey through the year. For more
information about subscribing to Unity
Marketing's Luxury Tracking Study visit
http://unitymarketingonline.com/reports2/luxury/luxury3.html
or call us 717-336-1600.
Pam Danziger,
President
Unity Marketing
author of Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to
the Masses — as well as the Classes.
http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/reports2/luxury/luxury3.html
Tel: 717-336-1600.
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