Global Social Media Ad Spending Is Booming

Posted on September 14, 2015 by bermanevansretail
As reported by eMarketer:
“Advertisers in the U.S. and Canada place a premium on social media and will ramp up paid spending on social networks 31.0% this year to pass $10 billion for the first time. Social network advertising in Asia-Pacific will total $7.40 billion, with Western Europe the third-largest region at $4.74 billion. The drop-off in spending to the other three major world regions is steep, with Latin America reaching only $680 million in 2015, while Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa lag further behind.”
Click the chart to read more.


 

Posted in Global Retailing, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer, Social Media and Retailing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Will Fast Fashion Work at JC Penney?

Posted on September 11, 2015 by bermanevansretail
JC Penney has had mixed results over the last several years; and as a result, it has changed CEOs, strategies, and merchandise plans.
Now, JC Penney is moving into the fast-fashion arena, which has been led by retailers such as H&M and Zara. What exactly is fast fashion? According to Annamma Joy, writing for the European Financial Review:
Fast fashion is “low-priced, quickly produced, and designed for obsolescence. The phenomenon of fast fashion (so-called because such fashion is produced quickly in response to trends, and is deliberately designed for a short shelf life), is a fairly recent development in the fashion world, made possible by globalization, and eagerly embraced by consumers.”
As we have noted at this blog, fast fashion is also known as “cheap chic.”
Jacqueline Renfrow, reporting for FierceRetail, describes the new JC Penney merchandising strategy thusly:
In early September 2015, the JC Penney department store chain launched Belle + Sky, a line of women’s wear that can be produced and turned over at a fast pace, giving JCPenney a fighting chance against apparel retailers such as H&M, Zara, and Forever 21. The new line is still in the testing phase, available online and at 50 of its 1,000 stores, Fortune reported. Prices for items, such as dresses and skinny jeans, range from $14.99 to $59.99.”
“The move could be considerable for Penney, which gets 56 percent of its revenue from apparel. The company is in the midst of a turnaround since the tough times that came after an attempt to go more upscale in 2012 and 2013. But under the leadership of the new CEO Marvin Ellison, the company hopes to become more nimble. He eventually wants private brands to comprise 50 percent of the store’s product, Dallas News reported.”

 

Click the image to read more from Renfrow.

 

Posted in Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Hands-On Tools to Improve Profitability

Posted on September 10, 2015 by bermanevansretail
As we have reported before, the Retail Owners Institute (ROI) provides many free or inexpensive resources. For example, see 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. 
Here are two other helpful resources from ROI:
  • The ROI’s SPEEDY Expense Analyzer for Retailers — “Analyzing business profits? Forecasting or ‘what if…?’ planning? These efforts are easier — and much more useful! — when the expense numbers from your P&L are sorted into five ‘buckets’. And this SPEEDY Expense Analyzer does that for you … automagically!
  • The Retailer’s PROFIT FINDER — “Are your profits hiding in plain sight? Here’s how to discover them. USE ‘BUCKETS” TO MONITOR, ANALYZE, AND CONSIDER “WHAT IF…?'”

 

Posted in Part 5: Managing a Retail Business, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Part 8: Putting It All Together | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment