Have You Mastered Twitter Yet?

Posted on March 25, 2015 by bermanevansretail
With the growing popularity of Twitter as a business communications platform, companies have various decisions to make — including these: Does every tweet mentioning the firm’s name require a response? How should firms respond to positive tweets? To negative tweets? How fast should a firm post its response to a tweet?
LeadSift (“Our technology sifts through massive amounts of social data so brands can easily identify customers and engage with them in context.”) recently conducted an important research project on these topics:
“Is it better to answer an irate customer on Twitter, or take the conversation to E-mail? Should you include happy faces in your tweets, or keep them professional? There is no end to the questions that businesses have when developing their Twitter engagement strategy, so we decided to help. LeadSift examined over 10,000 randomly selected interactions from brands and small and medium-sized businesses on the LeadSift platform to see what works, and what doesn’t, when engaging with customers. Take a look at the following infographic for 10 research-backed ways to improve your Twitter customer engagement.”
And click the infographic to read a lot more.

 

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

Where Do Consumers Research and Buy Apparel and Footwear?

Posted on March 24, 2015 by bermanevansretail
Despite the tremendous increase in researching and buying products online, many apparel and footwear customers still often like to patronize physical stores — and for research, not just buying.
As reported by eMarketer:
“Consumers may be happy to research online, but brick-and-mortar stores often still win out when it comes time to make a purchase. Though price and convenience drive millions to buy online each year, seeing and touching products in real life tilts the scales toward stores, according to research from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).”
“When asked where they most preferred to research clothing and footwear purchases, U.S. Internet users were most likely to select stores, though online was nearly as popular (44%, vs. 47%). Catalogs and TV shopping accounted for the remainder of research preferences. But digital’s popularity dropped 18 percentage points when purchasing time rolled around, with only about a quarter of Internet users preferring to actually buy clothes and shoes on the Web. Meanwhile, stores climbed more than 20 points to be the preferred purchase channel for 68% of internet users.
Click the image to read more — and to see people’s shopping behavior for toys, as well.

 

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Posted in Online Retailing, Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 5: Managing a Retail Business, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Rejected for a Job? Have a Plan to Move Forward!

Posted on March 23, 2015 by bermanevansretail
From a professional perspective, one of the toughest events with which we have to cope is job rejection. When (if) this happens to us, we need to get past our feelings of rejection, anger, and inadequacy — and take a proactive approach to “get back in the game.”
Mary Sherwood Sevinsky, a career consultant, writing for Careerealism offers eight tips to follow when dealing with job rejection:
1. Set Realistic Goals
“Long-term goals give you something to look forward to. Short-term goals ensure you are moving in the right direction and moving to your long term goals. Daily goals will get you out of bed in the morning.”
2. Do Your Best
“Take the time to try to match your resume or application details to what the employer is looking for. That way, you will be one of the few selected for an interview (and hired!). The extra effort and time has value, and they can help you will feel like you are really doing something meaningful.”
3. Change the Things You Do Each Day
“Search for jobs one day, follow up another, identify companies to cold call once a week, network one day, visit companies in person periodically. Don’t forget to eat, sleep, get dressed, exercise, and go outside every day. Make your own schedule and stick to it!”
4. Make Sure You Have the Necessary Skills
“Read blogs, articles, and/or books about career planning and job searching. Explore your field or potential occupations to determine if you need more skills to be competitive. Read articles related to your desired job or about job searching and interviewing every day.”
5. Have a Support Group
“You can’t do it alone. Ask for help outside of the family if need be. Reach out friends, ex-coworkers, and church or community members. You need someone to listen to your ideas and give you feedback.”
6. Network
“You probably know how to network, but maybe you are too dispirited or you don’t see the value in it. Nonetheless, it is a necessity and can result in your next job if you make the time and effort to contact and maintain connection with others. Join a civic group or one at your local career placement office, or volunteer. It is most important to start and continue to get out there and meet people – maintain your connections!”
7. Get Creative
“If you feel that you MUST have a specific position or salary before considering a job, you may be missing out on some great prospects! Purchase a real newspaper (or look at every job board posting within a 20 mile area or less) and look at every job. If you do this intermittently, you will have a better indication of what jobs are offered and you may discover a new direction that is perfect for you!”
8. Be Realistic
“You may want to think about moving to where there are jobs. Think about places in that you would like to live or parts of the country where people you know currently live. Search for jobs in those areas periodically to see if it makes sense to start a job search in another area in addition to your current one.”
Click the image to read more.

Photo from Shutterstock


 

Posted in Career Useful Information, Careers in Retailing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment