Tag: USA

US ecommerce sales see a 6% spike in Q2

Posted by | Oct 1, 2007 | |

There were no major holidays and it was a bit early to be planning for a summer vacation. Still, Q2 was a good quarter for e-tailers and merchant websites in the US. According to a recent report from the US Census Bureau, ecommerce sales saw a 6% spike over Q1.

Year over year (YoY) that is an increase in sales of just over 20%. Ecommerce sales reached USD 33.6 million while total retail sales reached more than USD 1.01 billion. Ecommerce sales accounted for 3.3% of total retail sales for the quarter.

According to a recent study from Tealeaf Technologies, 42% of consumers who have problems completing a transaction online have abandoned that site in favor of a competitor site. What is more shocking, though, is that more than 80% of those studied said, they have had transaction problems on a website.

With sales continuing to increase, merchants need to be more vigilant than ever about the software and information on their websites. Product details, pricing and customer service will cause consumers to change merchants sites but having good cart technology, making it simple to contact the company and ensuring prices are marked correctly will keep them coming back for more good deals.

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Modiv Media launches retail in-store self-service solutions

Posted by | Oct 1, 2007 | |

Modiv Media Inc., provider of retail interactive media delivery solutions, has announced the launch of Modiv Shopper, Modiv DeliVision and Modiv Mobile, a multitouch platform that delivers consumer-convenient media through in-store self-service solutions and on-the-go shoppers’ mobile phones. The new products enable brand marketers and retailers to connect and engage with individual consumers when they are at their “moment of decision,” making it possible to create truly personalized relationships. By reaching customers at the right times and locations, retailers and brand marketers can better influence buying behaviors and drive sales throughout the shopping experience.

“More than ever, the way shoppers shop and the way media is delivered are changing,” said Robert Wesley, president and chief executive of Modiv Media. “Today, 40 percent of shoppers are using self-service checkout at retail stores when available, and 240-plus million U.S. mobile-phone subscribers are beginning to use their mobile phones as personal convenience devices. Reaching consumer purchasers at these touchpoints — and at the most critical moments — is proving to be the best way to take shopping to the next level. Modiv Media’s products let brand marketers and retailers reach the target they seek and give customers relevant coupons and offers the way they want to receive it.”

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Why Big Newspapers Applaud Some Declines in Circulation

Posted by | Oct 1, 2007 | |

Big American newspapers sell about 10 percent fewer copies today than they did in 2000.
The big American newspapers sell about 10 percent fewer copies than they did in 2000, and while the migration of readers to the Web is usually blamed for that decline, much of it has been intentional. Driven by marketing and delivery costs and pressure from advertisers, many papers have decided certain readers are not worth the expense involved in finding, serving and keeping them.

That rational business decision is being driven in part by advertisers, who have changed their own attitudes toward circulation.

In the boom years, “there was more willingness by advertisers to assign some value to the occasional reader, the student, the reader who doesn’t match a certain profile,” said Jason E. Klein, chief executive of the Newspaper National Network, a marketing alliance.

But advertisers have become more cost-conscious and have learned how to reach narrowly tailored audiences on the Internet. Sponsors of preprinted ads that are inserted into a newspaper have been especially aggressive in telling papers that some circulation just is not worthwhile.

As a result, newspapers have sharply curtailed their traditional methods of winning customers — advertising, cold-calling people and offering promotional discounts. That strategy was always expensive, and it has become more so with do-not-call laws and the rising number of people who have only cellphones. According to the Newspaper Association of America, the average cost of getting a new subscription order, including discounts, was USD 68 in 2006, more than twice as much as in 2002.

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U.S. photo-kiosk industry bets future on gifting, creative products

Posted by | Oct 1, 2007 | |

The North American photo-kiosk market is poised to continue its growth streak, thanks largely to the emergence of the diverse gifting and creative product mix, reports Frost & Sullivan.

With an anticipated compound annual growth rate of 57 percent through 2013, the gifting and creative mix could well increase its share of all transactions to 20 percent by 2013.

For these levels of growth to be achieved, industry leaders in both the vendor and retail markets must work toward increasing customer awareness of the photo kiosks and their growing product mixes.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, U.S. Photo Kiosk Markets, reveals that this market earned revenues of USD 2.15 billion in 2006 and estimates this to reach USD 13.0 billion in 2013.

“Retailers no longer battle for the meager profits earned from the traditional 4×6 prints, but focus their efforts on encouraging customers to create lasting souvenirs in the form of photo-books, calendars and other image enhanced keepsakes,” said Frost & Sullivan’s Rufus Connell.

Besides offering consumers an additional means to print and share their images, the gifting and creative product mix provides retailers a significantly better ROI than the 4×6 prints. Vendors, too, have taken note, and innovative software and improved workflow are now helping consumers take advantage of the ever-growing possibilities that exist beyond traditional photo-kiosk use.

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UPS and Teamsters agree on new five-year contract

Posted by | Sep 30, 2007 | |

UPS announced it had reached a tentative agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on a new five-year contract covering approximately 240,000 full- and part-time package employees in the United States.

The tentative contract, which now must be presented to UPS Teamster-represented employees for ratification, was negotiated nearly a year in advance of the current contract’s expiration on July 31, 2008. Upon ratification, most provisions of the new agreement will take effect on August 1st, 2008.

The tentative contract includes wage increases as well as significant contributions to healthcare and pension plans to help strengthen these benefits for employees. The agreement allows UPS to withdraw employees from the Central States multi-employer pension plan and to establish a jointly trusteed single-employer plan for this group. UPS will make a pre-tax USD 6.1 billion payment to the Central States plan in connection with its withdrawal.

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