The Annual Retail Theft Survey

Posted on July 21, 2012 by bermanevansretail
In its 2012 annual survey of retail theft, Hayes International found that: “Shoplifters and dishonest employees stole over $6.0 billion in 2011 from just 24 major retailers, according to the 24th Annual Retail Theft Survey conducted by Jack L. Hayes International, the leading loss prevention and inventory shrinkage control consulting firm. These 24 surveyed retailers apprehended over 1 million shoplifters and dishonest employees in 2011 and recovered more than $161 million from these thieves.”
These 24 large retailers operated more than 18,500 U.S. stores and generated almost $600 billion in 2011 in retail sales. This means that the figures cited by Hayes International — as high as they are — represent just the tip of the iceberg for the multi-trillion dollar retailing industry.
Click here to learn more from Hayes International’s 2012 survey.
Posted in Part 5: Managing a Retail Business, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Should Internet Retailers Discriminate Between Customers?

Posted on July 21, 2012 by bermanevansretail
That’s an interesting question raised by Rafi Mohammed, writing for the Harvard Business Review (HBR) blog. To begin his post, Mohammed writes: “Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported a bit of pricing news that seemed downright shocking: After the travel Web site, Orbitz recognized that people who access its site using Macs spent as much as 30 percent more on hotels than PC users, it began to take advantage of the insight, rigging its search engine to routinely show Mac users a ritzier selection of hotels than customers using a PC. To be clear, all Orbitz users can see the same hotels if they opt to view hotels by price, and Orbitz does not charge different prices for the same room based on what kind of computer you use. Still, as pricing strategies go, this one is an attention grabber.”
What do you think about this practice?
Click the icon for the full HBR blog post by Mohammed. 

Posted in Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Privacy and Identity Theft Issues | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Hottest Emerging Markets in Retailing

Posted on July 20, 2012 by bermanevansretail
Each year, A.T. Kearney studies the leading emerging retail markets around the world: “The 2012 A.T. Kearney Global Retail Development Index™, the 11th annual edition, finds a wide array of possibilities for retailers seeking to capture an immediate impact and a growth advantage in developing countries. Possibilities abound not only in the biggest markets, but also in many smaller countries around the world. The GRDI ranks the top 30 developing countries for retail investment. Figure 1 highlights the rankings.”
Click the figure to learn more.

Posted in Global Retailing, Part 1: Overview/Planning | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment