The hashtag has evolved from a Twitter-only feature to having total social media domination. Social networks like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram now have their own hashtag feature. So how do you know if you are using a hashtag to its fullest potential, especially if you do not know what it is? Read on to learn how to optimize hashtags for your independent retail store.
Browsing: Marketing & Management
Your day as a retailer starts like any other; you tidy up the store, open to a bright shiny day, and happily begin selling your products to a loyal following. When, just a few hours in, a customer is standing at the point of sale prepared to make a sizable purchase. However this time something is different: you swipe their card and nothing happens. You try to connect to a supplier’s website and it does not work either. In the pit of your stomach a feeling comes over you that you know all too well. The Internet is down…
Selling online can be a lucrative business, and can assist retailers in taking their companies to the next level. One of the most crucial pieces of the online retail puzzle is ensuring that customers receive their orders efficiently, and on time.
With the rapid rise of bargain shopping and the proliferation of ecommerce and coupon sites like Amazon and Groupon Goods, consumers’ shopping behavior has changed dramatically over the past several years. Shoppers are now increasingly focused on getting the best possible deals on the highest quality name brand items.
With the USPS enacting a 5.9 percent increase across all mailing types, the largest rate hike for print mailings since 2007, catalog mailers are being forced to consider new strategies. Rather than dramatically reducing circulation and frequency, or jumping to less established online marketing channels, one option that’s attracting renewed interest is the “Mini Slim Catalog.”
In recent months, a combined 41 million customer credit and debit cards were compromised, due to a string of cyber-attacks on two high-profile corporate chain stores. As a small business owner, your footprint may be smaller than a mass-market retailer, but you are subjecting yourself to a huge risk if you are not making data protection a top priority.
Most retailers have been in a situation where there was a big product, company or merchandise decision to make, and they would have liked feedback but did not know whom to contact. Being a member of The Zoo & Aquarium Buyers Group (ZAG) provides the opportunity to ask retail buyers and managers from other establishments that are close in climate, size, location and traffic about what works for them, so retailers can utilize what they have learned.
Many small business owners hang in limbo when it comes to actively engaging on Twitter. When deciding whether to tweet or not to tweet, consider that 85 percent of Twitter users feel more connected to a small business after they begin following it, Twitter reports.
In part two of our interview with Stacy Leistner, VP of Strategic Communications at The Toy Industry Association (TIA), he reveals trends in tech toys, provides a retail toy industry forecast, and a look at how toy sales stack up around the world.
Kabbage is an automated financial services platform that quickly supplies working capital to small and mid-size businesses. On average, from the time merchants land on Kabbage’s website until they have cash in their accounts, it takes seven minutes.