Time (Fashion Week): If Saint Germain and Avenue Montaigne seemed a little desolate on this sunny Saturday afternoon in Paris it might be because all the chic shoppers had migrated up in the Bastille neighborhood to check out Paris's newest concept shop, Merci, which opened Thursday. I stopped in this afternoon before the Comme Des Garcons show and the place was mobbed. Housed in three floors (1500 square meters total) of an 1920s industrial building on the Boulevard Beaumarchais, Merci is the brainchild of the founders of Bonpoint.
The concept of Merci is to gather all sorts of tasteful merchandise under one roof--from home furnishings to fashion, from table top accessories to flowers. There's even a used book shop (my favorite part of the store) and an Annick Goutal fragrance bar where you can refill your empty bottles at 40% off. The idea behind what they are calling France's first "charity" store is that vendors must donate a percentage of their earnings to a foundation that benefits children--the first one is in Madagascar. Merchandise includes a mix of items specially made for the store and vintage stuff. Big fashion brands like YSL, Stella McCartney and Martin Margiela have created special pieces and furniture brands like Drucker have created their iconic Fouquets cafe chairs in exclusive colors like mauve and turquoise.
Retailers take note, there are tons of cool ideas: each piece of furniture has a notepad printed with all of the information about the object. No need to ask a salesperson for a price or even measurements, just tear off a sheet from the notepad and take it with you. Everything has a sustainable, recycled sense to it: In the bookshop there are donated books selling for 3 euros. Only flowers in season are sold, and the changing rooms are two cargo containers painted white and lined in pretty floral wallpaper. Downstairs a potager style garden designed by Christian Tortu will eventually supply the small restaurant.
TrendWatching.com: British grocer Waitrose launched a locally-focused giving program that enlists customers' help in focusing on issues closer to home. Waitrose's Community Matters program assigns each store GBP 1,000 each trading month to donate among three local organizations such as community groups, schools or local divisions of national charities. Customers nominate the organizations to benefit, and Waitrose's local democratic bodies make the final selection. Customers are then offered a token each time they shop that can be inserted in any of three Perspex tubes—one for each of the selected charitable groups. At the end of the month, the pile of tokens donated to each organization is weighed and the beneficiaries receive a corresponding proportion of the cash.
Businesses in and around Chicago will offer a limited-time only special on Groupon (Group + Coupon) that will be good for 1 day. In order for the deal to become "active" a certain number of users must join and pledge to buy the special offered on Groupon. Once the deal reaches the tipping point, the deal is done and each consumer gets the special. If the tipping point is not reached, your company gets free advertising on Groupon for 24 hours. It is completely risk free for advertising businesses - they get exposure, potentially a number of new customers, and only pay us a % of what is sold. Compared to traditional advertising where businesses aren't sure who will see it and if it will work but still must pay upwards of $3,000 for an ad, Groupon is a great alternative.
Qoof, the Video Commerce company, is launching its “all-in-one” video commerce platform for retailers and merchants at Ad:Tech NY this week. Current clients included in the initial launch are Buy.com, Ice.com, Geeks.com and Gaiam.
Its new video commerce widget includes all product information and direct response tools in one location, including: product details, customer reviews, buy now features, etc. Retailers upload videos and product information just once enabling Qoof to easily distribute it using ad networks (both major and niche networks), social media sites, merchant affiliate programs and others.
Once videos and product data-feeds are uploaded and desired distribution methods chosen, Qoof can have merchants up and running in as little as 48 hours.
Springwise: As belts tighten ever more in a continuously precarious economy, it's fairly certain more and more parents are turning to second-hand sources for children's clothes and other items. While thrift stores tend to be hit-or-miss and online offerings are often buried within the likes of Craigslist, a new classifieds site for moms promises to aggregate such listings from across the web, making it quicker and easier for parents to find high-quality and low-cost kids' goods.
Now in beta, Hand-me-downs allows parents to buy, sell, give away or donate new and gently used children's products in a family friendly atmosphere. Not to be confused with Handmedowns.org—a UK-based contender that facilitates just give-aways—the Beverly Hills-based site aims to create a one-stop destination for busy moms by pulling together and organizing the best listings from around the web as well as offering listings posted by its own members.
I've been thinking a lot about the term "retail theatre" lately. I've noticed that it continues to appear now and then in the blogs I frequent, and I've become increasingly bemused as I've seen a propensity among retailers for the creation of theatrical environments simply for the sake of theatre, without any clear effort (at least as far as I see) to link the "theatre" to the shoppers' needs.
I remember back to days in my distant past (15 years ago now!) when I was the Director of Marketing for a large Canadian specialty retailer. Athletes World sold casual footwear and apparel primarily to urban teens. We went through a phase of making our stores look trashy - hiring graffiti artists to paint the walls, unfinished concrete floors, even wrecked cars in the middle of the sales floor. In the end we clearly achieved the goal of making our stores look trashy, but to what end? The inauthenticity of our "street smart" efforts fooled no one, least of our our savvy target customer. In hindsight, we didn't improve the shopping experience. We just ended up with ... junky stores.
On a recent trip to Las Vegas I was walking through Fashion Show, the chichi shopping centre at the north end of The Strip. This mall takes it's fashion cred seriously. A fully produced fashion show - live models and all - is produced every hour on the hour from noon until 6:00PM on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
This is serious "retail theatre" - but to their credit it completely reinforces their core consumer proposition - the destination for fashion in Las Vegas.
I've posted some pictures here of the infrastructure they have built for these fashion shows - an elaborate stage that rises from the middle of the shopping centre floor, professional grade stage lighting and audio systems, good quality models.
This is retail theatre done right - in a manner that showcases product in a compelling, high involvement way. In a manner that builds on the shopper's experience, rather than just existing for its own sake.
How can your company, retail or not, build theatre in a way that showcases your products or services?
Just before the show begins
The stage begins to emerge from the floor
The control booth
* * *
Graeme Spicer is a Canadian trendspotter, ethnographer and observer of all things retail. He spends his time consulting with leading retailers; presenting at conferences across North America; lecturing at OCAD, Canada's leading design school; and reading too many blogs. Graeme blogs at http://graemespicer.typepad.com.
Adverlab: The obvious future of in-store experience: you find something you like, reach into your pocket for a small device, scan the barcode, and the device tells you whether and were the same product is available for a lower price. Brick-and-mortar stores become little more than showrooms for merchandise bought elsewhere.
This future just got one step closer today with the release of an iPhone app Checkout SmartShop, "a shopping assistant meant to help you fine online and local prices when you’re out and about shopping." For now, you still need to type in the UPS code; they are working on converting the iPhone camera into a barcode scanner.
How much time do you give for this app to hit the market: you go into a Blockbuster, scan a box, and the movie is cued up for download on your BitTorrent client?
The Future of Retail: Instant Price Match [Adverlab]
Springwise: For dieters working to lose weight, maintaining a decent wardrobe of clothes that fit can be an ongoing—and expensive—challenge on the way to a target size. With just that situation in mind, Transitional Sizes rents out name-brand clothing for temporary use while the pounds come off.
Maryland-based Transitional Sizes, which just recently launched, offers women's and maternity clothing in a range of sizes for monthly rental fees ranging from about USD 3 to USD 25. (Men's clothes are coming soon, the site says.) Customers order items in the sizes they need and keep them for as long as they want; once they're done, they clean them per the instructions provided by Transitional Sizes and send them back in the original box. Customers needn't be members to order from the site, but membership packages ranging from USD 10 to USD 40 per year are designed to give dieters a range of extra perks, including coupons, discounts, email alerts and weight-loss incentives.
Elmidae is an eco-minded woman-owned clothing company that makes a line of women’s clothing using largely sustainable and organic fabrics, as well as hand printed textiles using strictly non-toxic water based inks. Every stitch on every garment is lovingly produced in the United States by woman-owned factories at honest wages. Celebrating the artistry and intellect of garment making, Elmidae offers a line that is a true departure from mass-produced clothing.
Elmidae is a finalist for June at the Ideablob.com competition where entrepreneurs and small business owners can share and grow their business ideas – and have a chance to win $10,000 towards fulfilling them. CoolBusinessIdeas.com will be highlighting some of the winning ideas weekly.
A week or so ago, my partner and I (and the unfortunate couple we had visiting for dinner) came down with what was for me the worst case of food poisoning I've ever had. It made me think about the increased awareness of sanitation in public spaces like retail stores.
Here in Toronto, where we were hard hit by the SARS crisis in 2003, consumers are very conscious of hygiene, and need to feel safe from potential exposure to health risks when outside of their home environments.
An article in the Wall Street Journal from February 15th described a common problem. After washing and drying your hands in a public washroom, how can the washroom door be opened without touching the handle? Sanitgrasp, an small American company based in Atlanta, has a solution that allows the door to be opened by pulling with the forearm.
In retail, there are many locations where germs easily (and frequently) reside. The handles of grocery shopping carts are an obvious one. As I was wandering the aisles of the recent FMI trade show in Las Vegas, I noticed this display.
Disinfecting wipes are made available to shoppers to clean the cart handles - a great idea, highly visible, and inexpensive. A great way for a retailer to demonstrate that they are listening to their shoppers' needs.
Are there other ways that retailers are making their stores cleaner? Please comment.
Graeme Spicer is a Canadian trendspotter, ethnographer and observer of all things retail. As Director of Retail Strategy at DW+Partners he spends his time consulting with leading retailers; presenting at conferences across North America; lecturing at OCAD, Canada's leading design school; and reading too many blogs. Graeme blogs at http://graemespicer.typepad.com.
Springwise: As the weakening economy causes purse strings to tighten, consumers are increasingly looking for new ways to earn a little extra cash. Enter My Gold Party, which facilitates Tupperware-style parties focused on helping guests sell their unused gold.
Launched earlier this year, My Gold Party sells all the equipment minipreneurs need to host parties in which guests can sell their gold, including a scale, karat tester and book of instructions. Party hosts then invite guests to bring gold coins, watches and jewelry to their party, where they assay and weigh each item to determine its current market worth. The party host pays guests for the items with cash or a cheque, then ships the gold to a refinery, which in turn pays the host—at a rate the host hopes will be higher than paid to the party guests. The gold is then melted down and reused.
Consumers in hard times have always been able to sell their spare jewelry in pawn shops, but by bringing the process out of the back alley and into the living room, My Gold Party legitimises and updates it with a social and entrepreneurial twist.
Parties help guests sell their gold [Springwise]
CoolHunting:Re-Shirt is an Austrian-based company that resells second-hand t-shirts. What sets them apart from other online boutiques is that every shirt comes with a personal story. Owners submit the unique history pertinent to the garment they donate—often the circumstances behind buying it, or a memorable event while wearing it. The Re-Shirt philosophy is rooted in the question, "Do products last longer if you know their history?" The idea seems promising. Like a table made with reclaimed wood from some distant castle, a story can equate to desirability.
Once a shirt goes through the system, it's marked with a Re-Shirt code. Stories can be added onto the shirt's history, perhaps increasing its value.
TrendHunter: Shopaholics rejoice! Let us do the dance of joy! On Tuesday Amazon launched TextBuyIt, letting people text the name of a product, description, UPC or ISBN to the numbers “262966” (which is Amazon on the keypad), so we can buy from our cell phones, including from inside stores.
The service returns two results at a time, where you can buy one of the first two selections by texting “1” or “2,” or you can ask for more info by texting the letter “M.” Enter the e-mail address you have with your Amazon account and your shipping zip code and wait for the service to call you. They walk you through the checkout process with an automated voice system. You then get confirmation by text message and e-mail and as well as view your order online.
Merchants of Green Coffee is a Toronto, Canada based wholesaler and retailer of coffee beans, but with several twists that make them unique and therefore of interest to readers of coolbusinessideas.com.
The owners and employees of this company are passionate about the search for the perfectly brewed cup of coffee. They teach their shoppers about the three steps to great coffee: the highest quality coffee beans, the freshest roast, and proper brewing.
Therefore, they sell only the best arabica beans sourced from small, shady, organic certified plantations in countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Sulawesi and Costa Rica. They have a strong commitment to fair trade, and pay a fair price for the product in most cases directly to the farmer. A percentage of sales of their coffee goes to sustainable coffee programs.
The flavour and aromas of coffee are generated only after roasting brings out the essential oils and caramelizes the carbohydrates and sugars in the beans. Within minutes of roasting oxidation starts breaking down these oils, and will quickly turn the sweetness and complexity of aromas and tastes to bitterness. According to Daniel Byrnes of MGC (pictured in the photograph above), roasted coffee has a shelf life of only 3-5 days, regardless of how it's packaged. Ground coffee has a life of only 3 hours before it is stale.
So what is the key difference between Merchants of Green Coffee and your local Starbucks? MGC only sells green, unroasted coffee. Shoppers must purchase a small coffee roaster and roast the green beans at home - the store does not sell roasted coffee beans. Coffee is roasted at around 450 degrees F in small electrical appliances that resemble hot air popcorn poppers. The roasting process is complete is about 8 minutes.
The business model is also different. Customers generally pre-purchase 30 pounds of coffee for CDN$375, and receive the CDN$180 home roaster for free. They then drop by the store and take away coffee as they need in until their 30 pounds are exhausted. They can then continue purchasing green coffee at CDN$7-12 per pound - very inexpensive even by Canadian supermarket standards for arabica coffee.
With increasing consumer interest in trends like authenticity, provenance of products and environmentalism, organic green coffee that they can then roast, grind and brew at home is certain to gain more and more acceptance.
Graeme Spicer is a Canadian trendspotter, ethnographer and observer of all things retail. As Director of Retail Strategy at DW+Partners he spends his time consulting with leading retailers; presenting at conferences across North America; lecturing at OCAD, Canada's leading design school; and reading too many blogs.
Inhabitat: It’s still surprising to see how few retail spaces there are dedicated to green products. However, hopefully this is set to change in Britain, with the arrival of Eco Age, a cutting-edge, high-end designer gadgets and interior designs store in the upmarket family district of Chiswick, London. The retail space enables customers to see, touch and smell products before purchase – essential for customers who want to make a considered purchase based on their appreciation of all of these sensory aspects, and crucial for products that want to break from the ‘instant landfill’ norm. It also makes it much easier for good intentions to be turned into green-minded action.
Aware that cheeky consumers may treat the store as a showroom before purchasing goods off the net for less, the store has integrated a range of services into its offer. The basement houses an interior design consultancy that recommends paints, wallpapers and home energy systems to individuals and businesses. The store is also intended to be used as a networking space for anyone who wants to know more about how best to do their bit. With this much convenience, advice and encouragement on offer, we’re expecting the store to be responsible for a lot of positive change in the capital.
TrendWatching.com: LA-based SilverJewelryClub give away many of their jewelry pieces to spread the word about the quality and craftsmanship of their designs. Customers just have to pay for shipping. The club's homepage displays four pieces at a time and visitors have 15 minutes to order each piece, after which a new product takes its place. In their own words: "Giving away our jewelry for free is our way of introducing our products. We know the competition is fierce, and we want you to experience our jewelry so that you will remember our brand." SilverJewelryClub currently ships to 54 countries.
MediaCart® is revolutionizing shopping with a computerized shopping cart which assists shoppers, delivers targeted communications at the point of purchase and streamlines store operations.
One of the highlights for retailers here is the Use Scan and Bag to Accelerate Checkouts, Reduce Labor Costs. The MediaCart® System allows shoppers to scan and total all of their items, providing valuable displays while they shop and allowing shoppers to bypass traditional checkouts.
MediaCart® system accurately anticipates and responds to shopping needs – letting shoppers locate products, check prices and scan and bag their items seamlessly while shopping.
The idea of take-out has taken off. The emergent trend of buying online, picking-up in-store (‘bopi’ for these purposes) was listed as eMarketer’s #7 Key Online Predictions for 2008 and NearbyNow’s #4.
While seemingly inherent that companies would diversify their distribution efforts, many are still 1-pronged. Yet with benefits like bigger shopping carts (27% of bopi customers make additional purchases in-store) and opportunities for web cross-selling (44% of bopi customers buy more merchandise online than average), it’s easy to see why it’s on the ‘08 countdown.
Recently Circuit City, founder of the bopi method, added a 24-minute guarantee for pick-up customers. This comes, not surprisingly after the Forrester report noted the top reasons to buy locally were ‘want it now’, ‘try it first’ and ‘no shipping charges’. Further, mobile bopi is forecasted to spike as well. ‘Order en route’ has quite the ring to it. With giants like Wal-Mart (see Site to Store launch in Q107) and the top 3 pizza distributors jumping on board, their success will determine how quickly others join in.
Because who doesn’t want a generic prescription or a Lexus or a latte, to-go.
Katie Sherman is a NY-based freelance writer. After years of multi-tasking at downtown ad agencies, she's recently returned from a European backpacking sabbatical. During the day she works as a Copywriter in Soho. In the off-hours she concentrates on analyzing social/ cultural trends, business innovation and local entertainment. Her work has been published on PSFK.com, CoolBusinessIdeas.com, EatDrinkSleepny.com, and Glamourite.com. Email her at katie_sherman@hotmail.com
Nvohk is a community-managed, eco-friendly, surf-inspired clothing company. Nvohk is now recruiting members via www.projectnvohk.com. Pronounced 'invoke', the company combines the best of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding business models to develop and launch a new lifestyle brand that blends social responsibility and financial performance.
Nvohk is recruiting 20,000 – 40,000 members to contribute $50 a year to develop and shape the Nvohk brand. Members will make major business decisions including logo design, web design, product design, advertising, etc. Members will also receive a free member t-shirt, 35% of Nvohk's net profits in the form of reward points that can be redeemed to purchase products, and 25% off all Nvohk products. Nvohk will donate 10% of net profits to environmental organizations selected by its members.
The Cool Hunter: Back in May this year, we told you about a little shop in New York called Pong. A tiny table tennis parlor that you could hire out and film your slide into sporting greatness. What we also mentioned was after three months, Pong would be gone in favor of something else.
And the time has come for it to be replaced, by a Drive-in theatre. What was formally a sporting arena, is a cinema fitted with a 1965 Ford Falcon convertible and widescreen. Starting with films from 1960 and progressing chronologically each night, DRV-IN speeds through four decades of cinematic achievement.
With seating for six and a full concession stand, where else in Manhattan are you going to relive all those crappy B-Movie moments you saw when you were a kid?
EARTHtimes.org: Pay By Touch, the leader in integrated biometric authentication, personalized marketing and payment solutions, today announced that four separate retailers will pilot its internet-based Rapid Enroll kiosks to facilitate loyalty program customer sign up. All four will be live by the end of August.
Replacing the traditional paper-based enrollment process which is timely and error-prone, the sleek in-store kiosk facilitates simple and efficient electronic loyalty program sign-up. To join a retailers' loyalty program, a shopper needs only to enter a phone number and second identifier such as the first three letters of the last name. The back-end technology then automatically populates address information. The shopper can also enter her information manually.
The system also scrubs profile data against existing databases and automatically corrects any errors. The result is a more accurate loyalty program database that requires less time to process than paper based applications. What once took weeks can now be accomplished in minutes.
"To build and retain a loyal customer base in today's competitive retail environment, retailers must provide personalized service, and the most efficient way to do that is through loyalty programs," said John Rogers, Founder, CEO, and Chairman of Pay By Touch. "At half the cost of paper enrollments and infinitely faster, Rapid Enroll is the most efficient way to facilitate a positive return from loyalty program investment."
Boys to Men Gifts: The male gender is always the hardest to find gifts for, this is why we started Boys to Men Gifts. We are here to help you find creative solutions to the problem of what to buy for all ages of the male gender.
Boys To Men Gifts has a unique selection of carefully chosen gifts from around the world that you won't find in the high street stores, and will be debuting several products to the North American market. To help you find the perfect gift for the males in your life, we have found unusual, high quality and uniquely designed products for all ages, to give you a one stop resource for all your male gift needs throughout the year.
Visitors to our site will also be able to book a gift experience on line to make that occasion extra special for the male that thinks he has everything which makes an original and memorable gift and can also be a great opportunity for quality time.
TrendCentral: While websites such as SeenON! have touched on the idea of purchasing show-based product, ICE is different in that it essentially turns any footage, ranging from live TV shows to DVR’d movies and even DVDs and VHS (old or new), into an onscreen retailer. Almost everything you see will be available for purchase, e.g., Carrie Bradshaw’s nameplate necklace, Jack Bauer’s cellphone, or songs heard on Weeds. With IVC (interactive video commerce), viewers can “click” through highly organized menus, selecting product ranging from categories such as jewelry, electronics, clothing, and appliances to more media-based product such as in-show music, video, and show branded merchandise. There’s even a sponsor section, where viewers can check out the brands and products advertised during the show. Viewers also have an option to access detailed information on the show and cast members. The search and purchasing process is similar to an online retailer, but instead of using a mouse, viewers use their remote control to click through selections, choose color/size/version, etc., and ultimately buy items.
The Cool Hunter: Call it the relentless march of capitalism, or the material manifestation of our fickle society, but the high street is in a constant state of flux. Shops change hands at the drop of a hat, and most of the time, it’s not for the better.
It is precisely this commercial whimsy that inspired Canadian brothers Ben and Hall Smyth to create GrandOpening, a space that will constantly reopen every three months. Except, rather than hand over the keys to new owners, the Smyth’s will completely overhaul the 400-square foot space into something new.
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Based in Norfolk Street, New York, GrandOpening is currently a ping-pong parlor equipped with full-sized table and recording facilities so you can watch your performances on YouTube. For $6 you can get the table for twenty minutes, and for $50 you get the whole room for an hour with access to the projector screen and bleachers.
But it won’t be around for long. Come July, it’ll be gone, replaced by something equally quirky. Perhaps a cinema, driving range or even a dominoes emporium, who knows.
Fast Company: We're talking about consumers who want to own the same pair of jeans that Meredith wears on "Grey's Anatomy" or a dress that was seen on Gabrielle's character on "Desperate Housewives." The Times dubs this new phenomenon "shopping-enabled entertainment," a rapidly-growing marketplace now aided by several new websites selling the most popular and fashionable of the as-seen-on-TV products to consumers.
Shopping enabled entertainment gives a whole new meaning to product placement where viewers no longer have to be persuaded by advertisers to buy their products, but instead their brands are being actively sought-out by a celebrity-obsessed culture.
I first came across such fans last summer when reading message board posts on a design magazine's website. One fan had just seen the movie "The Break Up" with Jennifer Anniston and Vince Vaughn and was dying to locate the living room furniture used to decorate the couple's condo. The message board soon revealed hundreds of other fans who had admired the set as well and were seeking advice on which stores carried the exact couch, the end table and even the paint color on the walls.
Now, websites such as SeenON.com or StarStyle.com cater exclusively to these consumer demands and fans no longer have to fret over where to find their favorite TV items; a visit to the sites reveals just how extensive this market has become. As reported in the Times article, these websites don't just sell the clothes and accessories worn by characters on more than 100 televisions shows and movies, they also allow visitors to take virtual tours of TV and movie sets to purchase the tiniest details such as the Tupperware set used by Bree on an episode of "Desperate Housewives."
BurlingtonFreePress.com: There are fewer and fewer people asking, "Paper or plastic?" at supermarket checkout aisles throughout the Burlington area and across the country.
At Price Chopper's Burlington store, eight of 19 checkout lanes are equipped with automated "Easy Scan Checkout" machines. Each of the two sets, known as "quads," has four automated checkout stations and one employee to verify age for alcohol purchases, witness credit card transactions and assist shoppers.
The rest of the duties are left to customers: punching produce codes, weighing vegetables, scanning for prices and bagging food. To pay, shoppers feed cash into the machine or swipe a credit or debit card.
"They are embracing the opportunity to participate in a process that will help them move faster," Price Chopper spokeswoman Mona Golub said of the shoppers, adding that those who ring-up their own purchases experience "a sense of accomplishment."
MarketingVox: Interactive services firm IconNicholson has created a new type of in-store experience that combines social networking and shopping, and has come to be known as Social Retailing, according to fashion.psfk.
Demonstrated at the National Retail Federation conference earlier this week, the Social Retailing technology uses an in-store three-paneled "magic mirror" that can send photos or videos of shoppers in outfit options to their MySpace page or to friend's emails and mobiles for instant opinions.
The technology will also allow customers to see what others have purchased, and also view similar options that are not in stock but can be purchased online and delivered to their homes.
Personalized comparison shopping site, DealMine.com announces the launch of its wireless application for consumers to access their membership deals on the road. With thousands of discounts, miles, points and cash back rewards from credit cards, frequent flier programs and associations, DealMine.com guides shoppers how to take advantage of the programs where they belong as well as learn about new programs.
Free membership with DealMine.com enables travelers and shoppers alike to bookmark their favorite deals and save their membership numbers – all in one place. Now when checking in at the rental car or hotel desk, or checking out at their favorite store, consumers can access DealMine.com (http://www.dealmine.com or http://m.dealmine.com) on any WAP-enabled wireless phone to compare deals and put them to work.
“We are all members of countless programs designed to save us money; the hard part is keeping track of which deal is best. By making our discounts and rewards search wireless, we hope to make choosing the right deal much easier and more accessible.” said Scott Cherkin, CEO and Founder of DealMine.com. The site currently features over 100 car rental deals, 800 hotel deals, 12 JCPenney.com deals, 11 Target.com deals and much more from programs including American Express, AAA, AARP, Veterans Advantage, Visa, Delta SkyMiles, American Airlines AAdvantage, Upromise and more.
On the web, DealMine.com is the only place consumers will find a one-stop shopping website that showcases how membership-based deals compare with general sales and discounts available to all consumers.
Times Online: The nostrils of consumers are to be assailed with a wave of artificial odours designed to lull them into parting with their money.
The smells, pumped into shops and the foyers of hotels, range from melon, which psychologists have found induces feelings of friendliness, to figs, said to be welcoming, and the invigorating whiff of lemons.
“Scent branding” is widespread in America and is now arriving in Britain.
Customers in Mothercare, the baby and toddlers’ shop, can smell its distinctive “soft” odour. The Sheraton chain, meanwhile, has begun to perfume the lobbies of all its British hotels with a chemical smelling like fresh fruit.
KioskMarketplace: Calling Get & Go Express an “unmanned c-store” might be a bit misleading. It not only doesn’t have a staff, but the goods are all stocked in machines facing outward. What’s more, it doesn’t have tobacco, alcohol, gas or lotto tickets — c-store staples. And its profit margins are even more distinct from its traditional cousin.
Founder Jeff Parsons is building the chain on a simple idea. He realized removing the employees would widen margins to the point that it was feasible, even without the traditional high-margin items that require employees to verify age. And he’s augmenting his efforts with kiosk technology: deploying DVD rental kiosks and ATMs in the mix.
CNN: It looks almost like any other shopping cart, except sensors let it follow the shopper around the supermarket and slow down when needed so items can be placed in it. And it never crashes into anyone's heels.
"The immediate thing that jumped to my mind was all those times as a kid when my sister would accidentally hit me with a cart," said its inventor, Gregory Garcia. "It seems like the public would really want this, since everybody shops."
His cart, also known as B.O.S.S. for Battery Operated Smart Servant, was one of about 30 robots displayed last week by University of Florida students.
SFLORG.com: Researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)'s Institute of Textiles and Clothing have recently developed "An intelligent Simulator for Cross-selling & Up-selling using Smart Fitting Room & Smart Dressing Mirror". It is envisaged to help fashion retailers boost business volume by improving sales and customer services.
This system uses the technology of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to detect items brought into a fitting room or placed in front of a dressing mirror. When an item is picked into the fitting room or placed in front of a dressing mirror, the product ID will be immediately detected and transmitted to the system through the antennae and reader.
The mix-and-match database of the system will then deliver recommendations to the customer through a touch-screen LCD monitor or projected screen. In the fitting room, if the customer is interested to pick the recommended mix-and-match items, he/she can make their choice by clicking the items shown on screen. The salesman in the shop counter will thus be informed, through the intercom system, of the additional items required by the customer inside the fitting room.
Springwise: Remember Norwegian 'Paraplyselskapet AS', who came up with the world's first fully connected umbrella vending machines? Well, Springwise guess they hit a bit of a rainy spot (maybe it was their name?), as the company is basically inactive these days. So bad idea, end of story? Not really: UK-based Umbrolly has resurrected the concept, and is busy installing machines all over London. There are currently 10 of them dotted around London, with a further 10 out at the end of this month. Machines sell approximately 50 umbrellas per machine per rainfall day. They also signed a deal to place the machines exclusively across the London Underground and will have 150 units on the network by the end of 2005. International expansion is also in the works: the company is in talks with location providers in Germany, Holland and the US.
Springwise: We don't mind spelling it out again: in an age of abundance, curators rule! Riding the CURATED CONSUMPTION trend in all its glory is Japanese Ranking Ranqueen, a Tokyo chain selling only the top 3, 5 or 10 items in a bewildering range of categories. Rankings are based on sales data from big Tokyo department stores and independent research.
Think best-selling lists for bath powder. Tooth picks. Pasta sauce. Cell phones. And so on. Rankings are updated every week, mercilessly replacing the out of favor with the Next Big Thing.
There are eight Ranking Ranqueen stores in total: five stores in Tokyo (Shibuya, Shinjuku, Otemachi, Jiyugaoka, Kitasenju), two stores in Yokohama (Azamino, Kamiooka), and one store in Fukuoka (Fukuokatenjin).
Iconoculture: When wedding guests don’t put out, savvy newlyweds cash in. Retailers are toasting just-marrieds with completion sales – post-honeymoon promotions that let start-up spouses score discounts on un-purchased registry items. Staples like Bloomingdale’s, Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn have all integrated completion programs or events into their pre-wedding registry services. Most post-wedding offers give newlyweds a 10% to 20% discount on unfulfilled registry items for three to six months after the ceremony.
Registries help new couples pick up the picket-fence essentials – and get a head start on their new family homes. If guests don’t buy it, chances are they still need (or want) it. When it comes to registering for silver tuna items, it doesn’t hurt to ask. And if friends and family don’t bite on the big ones, enterprising newlyweds can always get a deal.
BusinessWeek: Light years apart in brand image and market appeal, both shops are targeting "the to die for" position which retailers the world over are striving to reach, the point at which a store becomes "a destination," a place where people choose to linger, learn, and be stimulated or simply have fun.
The best shops have always aspired to be more than mere merchants, but intense competition on the high street has upped the stakes. This is particularly so for department stores and specialist retailers, such as booksellers, caught in a pincer action by the advance of online sales on one flank and supermarkets offering heavily discounted blockbusters on the other. As Gennaro Castaldo, head of press and public relations at music store HMV, sums it up: "It's certainly the case that consumers have many more [retail channel] choices today. You have to give people an added reason to come into your store, something that makes the act of visiting a shop as rewarding as acquiring the good itself."
NYTimes.com: A new shopping complex in Ohio will try to combine the convenience of online stores with the hands-on experience of browsing at a mall.
Sometime near the end of 2006, the complex, called Epicenter, is scheduled to open in Columbus at the Polaris Fashion Place. The nucleus of Epicenter will consist of two parts - the Buypod, a hand-held electronic device, and electronic kiosks located throughout the mall.
Under the concept, customers will enter the mall and register their credit card information, which will then be put into their Buypods. As customers browse merchandise, they can use their Buypod - which, as the name suggests, looks something like an Apple iPod - to scan the labels of items they want to buy.
Although a small number of items will available to take home, most orders will be sent directly to the warehouse, where they will be filled and shipped. The electronic kiosks will print receipts and can be used to cancel orders, if needed.
TrendBlog: It probably started in high school. You did not want to look like everybody else anymore. You colored your hair and decorated your jeans jacket. And now you can even customize your own sneakers on certain websites or at the NikeID-store (slogan: perfection is personal). We call this Personalization, a trend which, by now, is very grown up. It began with street wear and interchangeable color-parts for cell-phones. But over the last few years this movement became big time.
Gucci offers personalization of their handbags. At Giorgio Armani’s ‘Atelier’ you can get your very own garment for about $40.000. The kits from J Crew or Marks & Spenser allowing you to customize your jeans are a little cheaper.
StartupJournal: On a recent trip to the local mall, Suzy Lee ran her usual errands, shopping for her two children at Gymboree and buying makeup and a few basics at Neiman Marcus.
But before leaving, she made a slight detour to Talulah G, a boutique with a name most shoppers wouldn't recognize. The independently-owned shop, which opened at the Las Vegas Fashion Mall in 2002, sells designer clothes by Valentino, Theory, Balenciaga and Chloé, as well as by hot young designers such as Pegah Anvarian and Ella Moss by Pamella Protzel.
"A department store might carry the same lines, but Talulah G will have a quirkier take on it. It's not so mainstream," says Ms. Lee, 38-years-old, who bought herself a white Michael Kors summer suit and a pair of Citizens of Humanity jeans. She says she stops in at the store a few times a month, whenever she has other things to do at the mall.
America's megamalls, built in the 1970s to showcase big department stores and national specialty chains, have begun to embrace the little guys, a new crop of quirky independent fashion boutiques. As sales at their department-store anchors continue to sag, malls seeking to diversify and increase traffic have been courting these trendy start-ups, which offer intimate service and carefully edited collections from a variety of high-end designers. Some properties even offer leasing and marketing incentives to lure boutiques and the style-savvy clientele that follows them.
Iconoculture: DIY homebodies looking for the perfect retro pieces like the thrill of the hunt, and this one engages them in the process from start to finish.
"Everything must go!" – for real. Whole House Building Supply and Salvage holds 48-hour salvage sales on the site of soon-to-be-demolished homes where DIY enthusiasts can scout, remove, and buy building parts right off the house.
Everything from indoor paneling to patio flagstone is up for grabs at the sales, held throughout northern California and open to contractors and consumers alike. Resourceful shoppers get a real charge out of picking up French windows, crown molding, kitchen cabinets, or name-brand appliances on the cheap. But eco-minded salvagers also get the satisfaction of knowing they’re recycling materials that might otherwise be dumped into landfill.
One Buck Concept: When siblings Jackie Bell, 48, and Wayne Bell, 46, realized high-quality items were no longer readily available to stock their industrial salvage yard, they knew it was time to change gears. So they stuck with the concept of one person's junk being another's treasure and opened up a secondhand clothing store.
The Bells placed an ad in the local Classified Flea Market newspaper seeking clothes for 25 cents per item. Their first response was from the family of a woman who had hoped to open her own thrift store and amassed 10,000 pieces of clothing before passing away. The Bells were able to completely stock Reruns for the grand opening in San Francisco with that purchase, but they now buy most of their inventory from a nonprofit organization.
Despite initial plans to offer every clothing item at just $1 each, Jackie admits she yielded to the temptation to raise prices at first: "Once I saw all the great clothes, I took my eyes off the larger picture." When six months went by and the partners saw sluggish sales, they returned to the original plan. The day signs went up advertising their new buck pricing, they had their highest one-day sales to date.
World Magazine: At first glance, the narrow store near the merry-go-round at Parkway Plaza could be any of a dozen Southern California mall-chain clones, the kind that hawk stud-belts and double-entendre T-shirts to skater-punks and posers: Back-alley brick walls, exposed-pipe ceilings, cutting-edge clothing lines, rock music throbbing from the rafters.
But the only double-entendres shoppers will find here are based on Scripture. The store is C28—short for Colossians 2:8—an overtly evangelical mall-based retail chain founded by Aurelio F. Barreto III, a California entrepreneur who made millions, found wealth bankrupt, considered suicide, got saved, then found he wanted to do something with his money besides lounge on exotic beaches sipping umbrella drinks.
Launched in 2001, C28 opens its sixth store this month in Palm Desert, Calif. Each store is aimed at fans of California board-sport couture: long shorts with legs like drainpipes, distressed outerwear, year-round logo-laden ski-caps, flip-flops, and jeans that might have been run over by trucks before being delivered by them.
But customers will not find at C28 any prototypical SoCal sales-dudes, tanned and ironic, biding shift time until they can hit the beach. Instead, they will find people like store manager Robert Villegas, 27, an Oceanside, Calif., youth pastor who may be the Energizer Bunny of a new kind of retail evangelism.
Springwise: Three great examples underlining that retail formats and shopping habits continue to blend, turning everything into easy-to-ogle, easy-to-customize and easy-to-buy:
At The T-Shirt Deli in Chicago, unadorned shirts are selected from a deli counter and then adorned with garnishings of personalized lettering, delivering on a "T-shirts made fresh daily" tag line. The starting price for t-shirts ranges from USD 15 (EUR 11.50 / GBP 7.90) for a basic T-shirt to USD 22 for a long-sleeve t-shirt and USD 26 for a long-sleeve hoodie. T-shirts are available for women, men, babies, kids, and dogs. Letters are USD 1 each: customers can use custom letters or their own design. Preaching flexibility and transparency, it may not come as a surprise that The T-Shirt Deli sources its T-shirts from sweatshop-free American Apparel.
Iconoculture: Baseball caps are de rigueur for Sunday afternoon games. Now the entrepreneurs behind GameWear have stitched together a baseball necklace they hope becomes standard attire. A fan can send GameWear a commemorative baseball for fashioning into a "wearable trophy" necklace made from the ball’s leather and 108 stitches. While diehards aren't likely to part with an autographed Cal Ripken, foul balls are fair game. And those leery of parting with memorabilia can purchase premade necklaces and bracelets sporting favorite team logos.
Sports fans love sporting team pride. With dress shirts, two-team jerseys, retro sportswear, and plenty of booty for female fans, today’s merchandise goes beyond the traditional jersey. Add GameWear’s unique ball baubles to the list, giving fans a chance to cheer collectively while flaunting individual style.
ABC news: Customers of a German supermarket chain will soon be able to pay for their shopping by placing their finger on a scanner at the check-out, saving up to 40 seconds spent scrabbling for coins or cards, bosses say.
An Edeka store in the south-west German town of Ruelzheim has piloted the technology since November and now the company plans to equip its stores across the region.
"All customers need do is register once with their identity card and bank details, then they can shop straight away," store manager Roland Fitterer said.
The scanner compares the shopper's fingerprint with those stored in its database along with account details.
Edeka bosses said they were confident the system can not be abused.
The chance of two people having the same fingerprint is about one-in-220-million.
Influx Insights: One of the latest incarnations of the pop-up store is Nike Runner's Lounge.
The lounge is the brainchild of one of Nike's Canadian marketing partners and is designed to help runners prepare for the Vancover Half Marathon.
It provides runners with a space where they can test drive Nike product, get information on local running routes, receive post-run massages and listen to talks from Nike guest speakers.
It's a perfect example of a great pop-up store. It allows the core audience of runners to interact with the brand, through a relevant experience. Since runners are always on the look out for information on routes, shoes and finding new training partners, this idea fits perfectly with a target need.
It also fuses a number of elements together in an interesting way; Nike product, Nike's sponsorship of the half-marathon and extends the brand promise from a product to a service relationship.
USATODAY.com: To the relief of advocates for the mentally ill, the Vermont Teddy Bear Co. said Thursday that its straitjacketed "Crazy For You" bears are sold out and that it will not make any more.
For weeks, advocates and Republican Gov. James Douglas have criticized the toy as insensitive. The $69.95 bear, marketed as a Valentine's Day gift, came with a straitjacket and commitment papers.
The company said it had decided weeks ago that it would stop manufacturing the bears but would continue selling them through Valentine's Day.
BBC News: Ever wanted to say "I love you" and never found the words? Well now you can buy a plant that says it for you.
Two Japanese manufacturers, toy makers Tomy and Takara, have both produced bean plants which sprout to reveal a special message.
Takara said its plant was "a new type of message card to convey your feelings to your loved ones", according to the French news agency AFP.
The gift comes with a choice of six different messages such as "Good Luck" and "I Love You" inscribed through the plant with a laser beam.
Tomy's offering features beans set in a white egg which "hatch" soon after they are put in water. The plants have a message in French on one side, and a message in Japanese on the other.
"You can have the fun of fortune telling, as you don't know what message will come out until the bean sprouts," Tomy told AFP.
Influx Insights: Great ideas need to be relevant, yet unexpected. And everywhere the idea lives should feel like the right home. A recent collaboration between Kidrobot and fashion and art publication, Visionaire, is an example of how to develop an idea that feels fluid rather than forced. An idea that exploits a cultural trend, but doesn't scream, "me too!"
For their 44th issue themed Toys, Visionaire has collaborated with urban toy creator, Kidrobot, to create an original Visionaire soft vinyl toy, and then further collaborated with 10 fashion designers - including Donatella Versace, Heidi Slimane, Karl Lagerfeld, Dolce & Gabanna, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, and Viktor & Rolf - to customize the toy into 10 different characters. The issue is released in two sets of 5 toys, but each set contains photographs of all 10 characters. The characters and booklets are packaged inside an opaque molded plastic case, and sold with the magazine for $175.00. While not super-limited by toy standards (small batch is usually less than 500), the 2000 run are still limited edition.
Business 2.0 Blog: Here is a sweet story courtesy of Josh Rubin's hot products site.
Neighborhoodies is the success story of a couple kids running a t-shirt business out of a basement apartment and 2 years later having a thriving 30 person company. As the name suggests, their t-shirts, hoodies and underwear shout out local pride. It's taking I Love NY to down to the street level, recognizing the individuality of different parts of town. But don't worry, it's not just about NYC and LA. They got many more places covered.
New York Daily News: Ready to scan your own groceries as you walk the aisles? How about buying a sweater from a touch screen on a department store shelf, to get a color or size the store just ran out of?
The National Retail Federation is set to kick off its annual trade show at the Javits Center next Monday, where its members will unveil a host of new gadgets that could give future shopping a whole different look.
That's because, when it comes to attracting and keeping customers in such a competitive age, good selection and heavy advertising aren't enough.
Chris Donnelly, a partner with the retail practice of management consultant Accenture, believes what sets a store apart these days is service - the ability to educate the customer - not to mention speed.
Take, for instance, the collaboration between Accenture and Microsoft, which recently piloted a "Shopping Cart Assistant" in a few test stores nationwide.
This mini-computer mounts right on a shopping cart, reminding customers what should be on their list. In a computer store, such a system would know what printer a person previously bought, then dispense advice on a matching ink cartridge.
USA Today: It's just the thing for holiday procrastinators: customized gift cards that don't look "last-minute."
Several retailers and financial services companies introduced the option this holiday season for shoppers to put a personal photo or an image of a product on the card — or even to design the card.
Sales of holiday gift cards are expected to hit $17.3 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation. But their popularity threatens to make them seem as impersonal as a $20 bill.
USA Today: For years, Pat de Garmo's Christmas tree was her aging yucca plant.
She doesn't like the idea of killing trees, and the size of her yard prevents her from getting a potted one. So year after year she strung lights and ornaments on the indoor plant, hanging toy drums and colored orbs from its stiff branches.
For environmentally conscious consumers like de Garmo, a venture that rents out living Christmas trees is filling a void.
The Original Living Christmas Tree Company founded by John Fogel, 39, has rented out more than 400 Christmas trees this holiday season, starting at $55 for a 7-foot Douglas fir.
The trees are taken out of the ground, roots and all, put into pots, and delivered to families in the Portland area. Soon after New Year's, Fogel and his crew pick up the trees and deliver them to parks, school districts and other groups who pay around $10 to have the trees planted on their property.
VOA News: China is the toy-making capital of the world, sending $10 billion worth of toys around the world each year. Now, China is also becoming a toy-buying country.
Christmas is coming and children are begging their parents for the season's hottest toys. In Hong Kong, two little Chinese boys, both six years old, are very excited as their mothers take them to the Hong Kong branch of one of the world's leading toy retailers, Toys R' Us.
Business2Blog: The folks at Mars have now made it possible to print (nearly) anything on your M&Ms. Go to their site, pick a color, and type out a message. Yes, it has a censor, and the kids at BoingBoing have already had their dirty fun. Gift boxes (2oz.) for $4.25 and a less impressive 8-oz. sack for 9.49. So that's, what, $34 a pound. Not bad. Mars is getting Teuscher champagne truffle prices for M&Ms.
It still looks like this idea of mass customization is in the experimental stage. Many companies have tried it, Levis or Dell, for example. But is is hard to think of a company that has stuck with it because it has been an overwhelming success. (That is, a profit center, not a promotion.) The technology is clearly here. But the mass market hasn't quite caught up.
Entrepreneur: The vibrant and ever-changing world of franchising is one where anything is possible. And every year, without fail, strong patterns emerge, revealing the industries that hold promise for the year to come. This year is no different. After months of careful research, we are pleased to present the franchise segments that have caught our attention and promise strong growth in 2005.
Expect the next 12 months to bring expansion across a variety of industries. Fitness and weight-loss franchises will grow as Americans continue their battle to get slim, tech consulting will be in greater demand than ever, eBay drop-off stores will spread rapidly, and children's tutoring/enrichment programs and senior care will maintain their spots in the limelight. Some of these trends are already visible in this year's Franchise 500®. So, without further delay, here's an in-depth look at the trends to watch in 2005.
USA Today: Gillette announced Thursday its strategy to go after a bigger cut of the women's shaving market this spring, including two new products in its successful Venus line and — in an unusual move in personal care products — equality with similar men's products in price.
The company will roll out a battery-powered Venus Vibrance shaver, similar to its men's M3Power, that sends little vibrations to the skin to raise the hair for a closer shave. It also will add Venus disposables.
In a product category where women's products generally are priced higher than men's — on the assumption women will pay more for personal care — the suggested retail prices for the Venus Vibrance will be $9.99 to $11.99, equal to the new lower price the M3Power gets next month.
Price equality for essentially the same product could help nick the competition, one expert says.
The Indianapolis Star: Bargain hunters such as Harmon are making resale stores one of the fastest-growing segments in retailing, according to the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops, a trade organization.
These stores no longer are dingy places where shoppers on shoestring budgets sift through mountains of musty-smelling clothes and junk to find one valuable item. Most resale stores today are as clean, well-lit and sleek as any discount store, and filled with racks of clothing bearing labels such as Ann Taylor and Banana Republic.
With fresher looks, brand names and low prices, these stores now butt heads with their counterparts in the malls and shopping centers across Indiana and the nation.
They are claiming more holiday shopping dollars from shoppers intent on frugality or funky items. They are luring shoppers by selling new items, offering gift certificates and discounts and promotions for the season that celebrates Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
Influx: For sometime, there's been something of a gap between the technical nature of skateboarding and the sophistication of skate shoes; most skate shoes have incredibly simple designs, they are almost anti-science and technology. With the recent success of Nike in the category, a company who put the science into footwear, other manufacturers have been forced to adapt to the threat.
In response, Etnies created the "Sole Technology Institute" in Orange County, California. STI is dedicated to understanding the science of skating. The objective is to use the lab to create better product. One innovation coming from the lab, is a heel shock system called G2.
The lab has now become a core part of Etnies marketing efforts; they even dedicated a trade show booth to the ASR trade show. They also report when riders visit for testing, etc.
As more and more technology gets applied to everyday life, Influx expects companies to be exposing their R&D process to consumers. Using it as a tool to highlight a brand's quality and differentiation. Household appliances are one obvious area, especially with the impact of Dyson's innovation on the market. We expect other players in this category, like Maytag, Bosch, Whirlpool and Siemens and others, to polish up their labs for public consumption.
Popgadget: Frequent travelers who don't want to do laundry in the sink or pay for expensive hotel laundry services can just take along several packs of OneDerWear disposable underwear. OneDearWear is 100% cotton, 100% biodegradable, and comes in several styles for men and women, from boxers to thongs. The fabric is very thin, so they won't last through more than a couple of wash cycles, but a 5-pack of thongs is just $7.99. There are also disposable socks.
Although the idea of opening retail stores where customers can walk through the various products on sale and try them out is not new, the news of Apple opening 'mini-stores', each of which is roughly half the size of Apple's common retail outlets, is worth noting. Half the products available in these 'mini-stores' will be iPod-related, and the other half Mac-related. These 'mini-stores' do make sense:
The mini retail stores will give Apple the opportunity to locate in places that, until now, have been too small to fit a tradition retail location. Apple now has four designs for its retail locations: The two-story Flagship stores with glass staircase; stores with theaters; smaller size stores with no theatre; and the mini stores. Johnson said that the new store size will allow Apple to serve both smaller markets that currently have no Apple retail presence, as well as high-traffic areas that are somewhat close to established Apple stores.
How customers pay for their iPods and Macs is unique too in these mini retail stores:
Most uniquely, between the front and back sections of the store are two touch-screen-based kiosks, embedded in the walls, that allow customers to scan the bar codes of the products they wish to buy. Once they scan a product, an image of it will appear on the screen. Customers will then insert a credit card to pay for them, and walk out of the store, all without interacting with a clerk.
Where else to experience Samsung but The Samsung Experience, a remarkable 10,000-square-foot interactive emporium of virtual reality experiences and technology in New York City?
The recently opened Samsung Experience is not a store but a paradise where visitors are invited to relax and learn how the latest devices from Samsung can enrich their lives. Entry is free, and visitors can try out the latest offerings from Samsung here. Upon entering the Samsung Experience, visitors can be immediately 'wowed' by the many fascinating experiences. Islands of giant rotating LCD screens, each holding visual segments of an interconnected virtual world, greet them as they enter the big complex. Also: images embedded in the venue's giant interactive map of New York City can be transferred to customize postcards and create personalized artwork!
Of course, the star attraction of The Samsung Experience must be the many high-tech gadgets and devices that visitors can try out. Visitors will also be able to use MP3 players to download songs off Napster to CDs, download ring tones to their cell phones, check out the fruits of Samsung's R&D and design revolution, including advanced cell phones with video recording, high-resolution photography and gaming features never before seen, and more.
Samsung will also pioneer an innovative loaner program. Visitors to the Samsung Experience will be able to take a hard-disk based camcorder with them to shoot video around New York City. Once they return, they can edit the footage at kiosks inside the Experience, burn their movies onto DVDs, and return home with a digital souvenir.
Let's Get Down To Business...
CoolBusinessIdeas.com feels that this is an effective way to build brand awareness and promote a premium, high-tech cachet for Samsung. Indeed, the venue serves as a great educational resource, communicating the life-enhancing benefits of digital technology without the pressures of a sales environment. A learning point for any company: be sure to allow potential customers to engage in hands-on product encounters!
How would it be like to shop in a supermarket without bringing your wallet along?
A supermarket in San Francisco (USA), Pick n’ Save Metro Market, has recently joined the growing walletless world by introducing its customers to Pay By Touch, a new payment service that lets users purchase groceries with the touch of a finger. The one-time Pay By Touch enrollment takes just a couple of minutes. Shoppers scan their finger, enter a search code, swipe rewards cards and/or payment cards, and add their checking account information to build a personal Pay By Touch wallet, which is stored at secure IBM data centers.
The Pay By Touch finger scanning technology does not store actual fingerprints; instead, it creates a set of 40 data points that cannot be reverse engineered back to a fingerprint. Once enrolled – no matter what store or state they are in – customers can simply scan their finger and select a preferred payment method every time they pay.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Pay By Touch is a free consumer payment service that allows shoppers to pay for purchases using a finger scan to access their financial accounts and loyalty programs. With Pay By Touch, the checkout process is faster, more convenient, and more secure than other payment methods. It eliminates the need to present checks and IDs, credit, debit, membership, or loyalty cards at the point of sale.
Tina Sprigg is a classic example of an entrepreneur battling against many other competitors successfully by making a specific niche for herself in her industry. Guess what she did? She actually created her unique fashion medical bracelets and sold them to clients who hated wearing any medical alert jewelry because these pieces usually look really dull and clunky. From the Sun Herald:
Most children, notes Sprigg, reject the traditional medical jewelry because they don't want to call attention to their ailments. Her creations, on the other hand, are viewed more as fashion. The essential metal plate is there, of course. But it's upstaged by an eye-catching beaded band. The nameplate (which bears on the front the wearer's name and the medical alert symbol and on the flip side the specific medical warning) is provided by the customer. To assist customers, Sprigg's Web site, www.beadin-beagle.com, has a link to Oneida Nameplate Co.
It's not uncommon for would-be customers to take a car for a test-drive or try out a new TV set before buying. So Maytag decided to extend that test-drive concept to the electrical appliances it sells, such as dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators and cooktops. In Maytag's try-before-you-buy stores, consumers looking for a clothes washer can be seen doing a load of laundry to see if an appliance lives up to its advertising claims. Similar, you might see a shopper considering a new oven tries one out by baking a batch of cookies right in the store. And, shoppers are pleasantly surprised by this try-before-you-buy idea!
The atmosphere is welcoming and home-like, even down to the playroom where you can drop off the kids while you shop. The success of these test stores is measurable in the almost 70% close rate, meaning 70% of customers that walk in the door actually purchase. But the concept store also creates rich experiences of the maytag brands, helping facilitate a worthwhile, tellable story for customers to bring back to their circles of friends in a category where word of mouth and friends' advice is the consumer's primary method of research.
Imagine you extending this try-before-you-buy concept to the products your business sells; you may just do a roaring trade in your business!
Are you wondering what to do with all those spare change in your piggybank? Well, with Coinstar's pilot program, you can turn them into coffee at the nearest Starbucks store!
USA-based Coinstar offers coin counting, prepaid products, payroll services and more through its national network of self-service kiosks. In its latest move to attract customers and increase revenue, Coinstar is adding Starbucks' cards to its range of services. When converting coins at the kiosks, consumers can opt to top up their Starbucks Card instead of receiving cash (Source: The Seattle Times). With the spare change converted and transferred into your Starbucks card, you can now enjoy a nice cup of cappuccino at Starbucks - from all that spare change! :-)
Let's Get Down To Business... This is a creative way to encourage consumers to spend that extra sum of money which would otherwise not be spent. Consumers want a practical station that provides a hassle-free user experience that saves time, money and simplifies their life. Besides Starbucks cards, prepaid wireless, cash cards, ring tones and many other such services can be easily sold through such a station. Imagine consumers buying your services with their spare change every time they go shopping! And do not underestimate the sum of money, as all that spare change could actually amount to quite a significant sum that will contribute towards your revenue.
Can you read the teenagers' mind? Five Below is certainly making big bucks doing so. Five Below is a chain of five-and-dime-type stores for teens where the glittery and right-now-cool items sell for $5 or less. The "micro-purchasing" opportunity - a new concept of making frequent, small purchases - offers thousands of trendy products for teens, as well as pre-teens and other value-minded consumers to buy, all of which are priced between $1.00 and $5.00. This is exactly what teens are looking out for!
By combining exceptional value with trend-right, quality merchandise in a vibrant shopping environment, USA-based Five Below has reinvented the traditional five-and-dime for today's younger generation, and has launched a new retail category within the specialty discount market. At Five Below, "whatever you got will buy a lot." (Source: Fivebelow.com)
Cash-strapped teens with high spending desires these days are enticed by the mix of fresh, hot, and trendy stuffs that come cheap. There is no hesitation to purchase merchandise like sporting goods, games, and jewellery, to hobbies and collectibles, novelty and "gag" items, and seasonal items when each item consists of only a small proportion of their budget.
So is this trend of "micro-purchasing" viable in Singapore then?
Young Singaporeans are value-conscious shoppers, but at the same time they are materialistic and would not hesitate to spend large sums of money on branded goods and products. This is especially true for teenagers! Teens today are image conscious and love to shop for clothes, shoes, purses and accessories. CoolBusinessIdeas.com thinks that "micro-purchasing" is a workable concept because it is in congruence with two traits of the typical Singaporean: the 'Kiasu' mentality that often drives many Singaporeans to hunt for bargains and the urge to splurge on the 'In' things that make one looks cool and fashionable.
So... by supplying really cool and trendy merchandise at really low prices, you're empowering shoppers to be able afford and purchase anything that is sold in your store! Now you know why the One.99 Shop, U-neek and Bubble Bags concept stores opened by Nanz Chong-Komo (Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2000) was wildly successful. In her own words: "The crowd is young and their spending power is quite high. And if you want a trendy bag, for instance, you don't want to spend a bomb because fashion changes so quickly. You'll just want to buy something nice but affordable." (Source: newasiawoman.com.sg)
Let's Get Down To Business...
In the 'Kiasu' and yet trend-conscious society of Singapore, there is strong demand for cheap yet branded goods. Bargain versions of aspirational brands and products are particularly appealing to cash-strapped teens who would love to get them for a "steal". Taking advantage of this 'micro-purchasing' trend of budget-conscious consumers can definitely increase your revenue dramatically. It's not just a teens trend; adult shoppers with high purchasing powers these days are also a boon for retailers who sell fresh, trendy and value-for-money items. Cheap yet trendy is the way to go!
A whole new way of shopping in supermarkets is underway in Europe. Metro AG, one of Europe's largest retailers, is revolutionizing the shopping experience by introducing cutting-edge technologies at its Future Store in Germany.
Imagine this: upon entering the supermarket, you're greeted individually - by a handy small computer, the Personal Shopping Assistant. With this device, you can easily recall your shopping list drawn from purchases made over the last few weeks. Looking for a certain product? No problem! The Assistant can show you at the touch of a button precisely where the packet of flour that you are looking for can be found. Can't recall how much some of your groceries cost per kg? Just use the intelligent scales that recognize, weigh and price fruit and vegetables automatically! Need more information about select foods and wines? Check out the interactive multimedia kiosks called Information Terminals' that provide the detailed information you need!
Done with your shopping? Find out by checking your high-tech shopping cart, integrated with a scanner and computer to allow you to tally with your own purchases. Then, pay with your Personal Shopping Assistant or just use the self check-out option - without requiring a cashier or having to queue up! (Source: Future-Store.org)
The basic technology of the Future Store is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). For those who are not familiar with RFID, it is a tag that contains an IC chip with an antenna. Unlike bar codes, RFID tags don't require line-of-sight reading, and so one scanner can read hundreds of tags per second. Stimulated by a radio signal, the chip transmits a unique code to identify the product the tag is fixed to. The code includes not only the product's universal product code, but also gives the particular item its own unique tag. (Source: Spectrum.ieee.org)
Besides enhancing the shoppers' experience, RFID makes purchasing processes faster, more transparent and effective. Ordering, delivery and warehousing of the merchandize will be simplified. It is possible to track the transport and whereabouts of the goods across the entire supply chain. For instance, employees can recognize faster when shelves are about to run empty - hence an "out-of-stock" occurrence will be a thing of the past. For retailers, the optimized processes are leading to cost savings and increased customer satisfaction.
Let's Get Down To Business...
Such a futuristic concept of 'technologicalizing' shopping can be aptly applied to local supermarkets and stores such as NTUC Fairprice and Cold Storage. Being almost unheard of in the local scene, this revolutionary shopping experience will certainly attract much fanfare for whichever supermarket that first implements it. Also, the demands and expectations of customers in the consumer goods industry have undergone changes over the past years. Tip: develop innovative technologies that can make shopping more convenient and efficient for consumers through better service, as well as improve operational processes. Individualize and personalize the shopping experience. In the Future Store, customers make use of a service tailored even more accurately to their specific wishes. This is something you should aim for, as the customer's always king!
Have you ever wished that the sofa or cupboard which you've ordered after a painstaking search in a Courts showroom can be delivered right away to your house? A furniture store almost accomplishes that - you order today, they deliver it tomorrow.
"Buy today...we'll deliver TONIGHT!" - ambitious promise from Mealey's Furniture (mealeysfurniture.com), but they have managed to make it their business. Typically, the furniture industry has to keep customers waiting for two or three days, sometimes even weeks, before they can deliver their orders to their living rooms. Mealey's Furniture, based in USA, differentiate themselves from competitors by promising same-day delivery on almost everything displayed in their showrooms to locations within 25 miles of their stores.
Sceptical? Anyone working in the furniture and logistics industries would naturally be, given the extraordinary operational complications. Here is the secret behind their remarkable logistical feat:
Plan ahead. In Mealey's Furniture's case, it takes between eight to sixteen weeks before supplies from manufacturers arrive, so the company estimates the sales rate of their furniture goods after two to four months from now and stock the necessary numbers in their large warehouse.
Track sales and inventory levels. Mealey's Furniture does this intensively with an arsenal of advanced computer programs and responds to changes in sales and inventory levels by adjusting reorder levels when they next order from suppliers.
The all-important part next: distributing the furniture once a sale is confirmed. Almost instantly, a copy of the order is sent to their distribution centers from their showrooms when a customer happily flashes the credit card. Then, the employees get into full swing. Assembly of the furniture starts, taking an hour or so, before it awaits the next truck to take it away. If that piece of furniture happens to be the only one awaiting delivery at that moment, it is placed on hold until more arrive. Once everything is ready, the truck gets rolling on the roads, the furniture is delivered, and the customer is satisfied at the end of another long day.
Admittedly, same-day delivery of furniture is challenging, but it has succeeded in setting Mealey's Furniture apart in the industry. And oh, Mealey's Furniture's growth has soared from $23.1 million in revenue in 2000 to $30.8 million last year. (Source: Bizjournals.com)
Let's Get Down To Business...
Can local furniture stores replicate Mealey's Furniture's success? As they say in Economics, where there's demand, there's supply. You would love to be able to try out your brand-new sofa immediately in the comfort of your living room, wouldn't you? It's not uncommon to find proud home-owners in Singapore who will search for months just to get that perfect piece of furniture, and when they finally find what they want, they want it immediately. That's where you come in!
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CoolHunting: 
TrendHunter: Shopaholics rejoice! Let us do the dance of joy! On Tuesday Amazon launched TextBuyIt, letting people text the name of a product, description, UPC or ISBN to the numbers “262966” (which is Amazon on the keypad), so we can buy from our cell phones, including from inside stores.
CNN: It looks almost like any other shopping cart, except sensors let it follow the shopper around the supermarket and slow down when needed so items can be placed in it. And it never crashes into anyone's heels.
SFLORG.com: Researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)'s Institute of Textiles and Clothing have recently developed "An intelligent Simulator for Cross-selling & Up-selling using Smart Fitting Room & Smart Dressing Mirror". It is envisaged to help fashion retailers boost business volume by improving sales and customer services.
Iconoculture: When wedding guests don’t put out, savvy newlyweds cash in. Retailers are toasting just-marrieds with completion sales – post-honeymoon promotions that let start-up spouses score discounts on un-purchased registry items. Staples like Bloomingdale’s, Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn have all integrated completion programs or events into their pre-wedding registry services. Most post-wedding offers give newlyweds a 10% to 20% discount on unfulfilled registry items for three to six months after the ceremony. 
Iconoculture: DIY homebodies looking for the perfect retro pieces like the thrill of the hunt, and this one engages them in the process from start to finish.
Springwise: Three great examples underlining that retail formats and shopping habits continue to blend, turning everything into easy-to-ogle, easy-to-customize and easy-to-buy:
USATODAY.com: To the relief of advocates for the mentally ill, the Vermont Teddy Bear Co. said Thursday that its straitjacketed "Crazy For You" bears are sold out and that it will not make any more. 
BBC News: Ever wanted to say "I love you" and never found the words? Well now you can buy a plant that says it for you. 
New York Daily News: Ready to scan your own groceries as you walk the aisles? How about buying a sweater from a touch screen on a department store shelf, to get a color or size the store just ran out of?
USA Today: It's just the thing for holiday procrastinators: customized gift cards that don't look "last-minute." 
Business2Blog: The folks at Mars have now made it possible to print (nearly) anything on your M&Ms. Go to their site, pick a color, and type out a message. Yes, it has a censor, and the kids at BoingBoing have already had their dirty fun. Gift boxes (2oz.) for $4.25 and a less impressive 8-oz. sack for 9.49. So that's, what, $34 a pound. Not bad. Mars is getting Teuscher champagne truffle prices for M&Ms.
USA Today: Gillette announced Thursday its strategy to go after a bigger cut of the women's shaving market this spring, including two new products in its successful Venus line and — in an unusual move in personal care products — equality with similar men's products in price.
Are you wondering what to do with all those spare change in your piggybank? Well, with Coinstar's pilot program, you can turn them into coffee at the nearest Starbucks store! 
This is a creative way to encourage consumers to spend that extra sum of money which would otherwise not be spent. Consumers want a practical station that provides a hassle-free user experience that saves time, money and simplifies their life. Besides Starbucks cards, prepaid wireless, cash cards, ring tones and many other such services can be easily sold through such a station. Imagine consumers buying your services with their spare change every time they go shopping! And do not underestimate the sum of money, as all that spare change could actually amount to quite a significant sum that will contribute towards your revenue.
