“Interbrand Releases the 2013 Best Retail Brands Report”  “Walmart maintains its #1 position by a huge margin with a brand value over $141 billion, up 1% from last year. Target is in the #2 position with a value of $25 billion, up 7% from 2012. The Home Depot is solid at #3 with a brand value of nearly $23 billion. Amazon makes a big jump to #4 from last year’s #9.”  Read the full list of 50:  https://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/latest.jsp?resourceid=6502235&access=EH

 

“Sam’s Club and Amazon Earn Top Honors in Retail Industry for Customer Experience, According to New Temkin Group Research”  “Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, Sam’s Club and Amazon earned the top spots in the retail sector of the 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings. At the other end of the spectrum, RadioShack was the lowest-rated retailer for the third consecutive year.”  Read more:  https://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/latest.jsp?resourceid=6503028&access=EH

 

“Lowe’s boosts online sales more than 50% in 2012” by Stefany Moore at Internet Retailer.  “Internet Retailer estimates the web accounted for around 1.5% of the home improvement retailer’s total sales in 2012, or $757.5 million. That would represent a 51.5% increase from $500.0 million in 2011, which was also an Internet Retailer estimate. Much of that growth was driven by an increased availability of products online, as well as an increase in conversion, he said.  “Conversion rate was up, and we also dramatically expanded the number of items that we have out there Niblock said. “We’re over 600,000 now, I think. So tremendous opportunity there.” Last year, Lowe’s had 250,000 SKUs available online, according to data in the Top 500 Guide.”  Read more:  https://www.internetretailer.com/2013/03/19/lowes-boosts-online-sales-more-50-2012

 

Walmart’s Green Student Challenge:  “Green thinking gets students the green” by Jason Miller at The Intelligencer.  “The top five finish earned the aspiring businessmen $8,000 in prize money to invest in their Canada Green Lawn Care business launching this summer in the Kitchener, Waterloo and Guelph area where they are pursuing post-secondary studies.  “We won over the judges with our zero emissions lawn care services,” Coady said. “We put the money won towards starting the business.”  Read more:  https://www.intelligencer.ca/2013/03/17/green-thinking-gets-students-the-green

 

“Nearly half of online shoppers give up for lack of personal interaction” by Shukti Sharma at Retail Digital.  “The research survey, which sampled the views of 1,000 online shoppers, found that 43% of respondents have abandoned their online shopping baskets in the last 12 months, with almost half (44%) citing lack of customer interaction as the primary reason…Dylan Fuller, UK Country Manager at Whisbi, says, “The research results demonstrate that the average retailer is surprisingly blasé about their checkout system and as a consequence is suffering from a poor conversation rate.”  Read more: https://www.retail-digital.com/online_retailing/nearly-half-of-online-shoppers-give-up-for-lack-of-personal-interaction

 

“Walmart in Africa – Unpacking the Monolithic Market” by Matt Mossman at All Africa.  “Walmart has sent some suppliers to its US headquarters to learn about the company’s buying methods, and South African businesses have already reported closer scrutiny of their existing practices in order to boost efficiency and logistics. One example is night deliveries. They save time and money, but were uncommon previously in South Africa due to nighttime carjackings.  In August 2012, the company announced a $313mn expansion plan in Africa that will add 40 stores on the continent by the end of 2013.”  Read more:  https://allafrica.com/stories/201303200169.html

 

“Lowe’s VP to utilities: Stop building and start partnering” by Kathleen Wolf Davis at Intelligent Utility.  “As utilities look more to empowering the consumer, they’re growing a number of in-house building efforts from smart thermostat initiatives to efficiency programs. Kevin Meagher, vice president of smart homes for Lowe’s (yes, the place where you buy your gardening tools) says utilities are making all of this consumer engagement just too darn hard.  He suggests, instead of working to make all these programs happen with websites and door hangers and extra employee time, that utilities think about strategic partnerships with businesses like his to increase energy efficiency and drive consumer adoption.”  Read more:  https://www.intelligentutility.com/article/13/03/retail-vp-utilities-stop-building-and-start-partnering

 

“Supreme Court textbook copyright ruling bodes well for Costco” by Mark Sherman at AP via The Seattle Times.  “The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that textbooks and other goods made and sold abroad can be resold online and in discount stores without violating U.S. copyright law. The outcome was a huge relief to eBay, Costco Wholesale and other businesses that trade in products made outside the U.S.”  Read more:  https://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2020595859_scotustextbookxml.html

 

“EBay goes after Amazon with fee changes for sellers” at Reuters.  “Many sellers will pay lower fees after the changes, especially those who are not volume sellers and list fewer than 12,250 times per month, according to Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell on online marketplaces including eBay and Amazon.  “These fee changes definitely make eBay more competitive,” said Wingo.  EBay’s move comes as sellers on Amazon’s marketplace become increasingly upset with fee increases.”  Read more:  https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/19/us-ebay-fees-idUSBRE92I0UH20130319

 

“We Asked, Marketing Execs Answered: If You Could Solve One Challenge in the Advertising Business, What Would It Be?” by Maureen Hoch at Harvard Business Review.  “To shed a little light on what it takes to manage this process, we asked a group of top CMOs and advertising executives — from Xerox, Leo Burnett USA, Cleveland Clinic, Adobe, and Nike — a question: If you could solve one challenge in the advertising business, what would it be?”  Read more:  https://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hbreditors/2013/03/we_asked_marketing_execs_answe.html?utm_source=Socialflow&utm_medium=Tweet&utm_campaign=Socialflow

 

Thanks for reading…

 

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