A recent discussion on RetailWire discusses how crucial it is for retailers to integrate selling channels. If a customer wants to make a purchase online and pick up the item at the nearest store, then they should be able to do so. Wal-Mart does a great job with this. I believe most retailers know that they should be integrating their selling channels to keep up with the evolving shopper experience, but the problem lies in the technology investment and logistics of it all. Are most retailers ready to make the necessary monetary and time investments? Probably not. However, those retailers that already have integrated selling channels are ten steps ahead of competition.

What do you think? 

Verizon Wireless aims to improve the wireless retail experience for customers by incorporating a new store design. Features to enhance the customer experience include a greeter kiosk that allows customers to check in once they enter the store and list their wireless needs so representatives can quickly assist them. In addition, the new store layout will have customer service and technical support departments, making it easy for customers to get account information, customer service and address technical issues from trained in-store staff.

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Retailers know that they will be facing a difficult back to school season this fall. They are aggressively introducing new products, slashing prices, and amping up marketing. However, despite these efforts, analysts say it will make little difference to consumers pressured by rising costs.

What do you think?

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U.K. supermarkets Tesco and Asda will cut the costs of thousands of everyday groceries in a move that threatens to start an all-out supermarket price war.

Grocery bills have sky rocketed in the past year and MySupermarket.co.uk claims that a typical family faces a £1,000 rise in the amount it spends in supermarkets over the coming year. 

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What are retailers doing to increase sales? One strategy is offering deeper discounts. Nordstorm has slashed prices, starting at 40%, vs. 33% last year. While Nordstorm is offering deep discounts, other retailers are going after a different customer segment altogether. Earlier this year, Old Navy began pitching their clothing at twentysomethings. Now, their ideal customer is the budget-conscious mom shopping for herself and her family. When retailers realize slashing prices and targeting different customers altogether is not enough, what else can they do? Perhaps teaming up is the answer. For instance, retailer Macy’s has teamed up with FAO Schwarz to bring toys back to its stores.

Do price cuts work?

Yes, price cuts work in the short-term, especially during hard economic times when consumers are ultra price conscious. However, one problem retailers might face is that consumers will get use to the lower price points. Even when the economy does improve, customers might not be willing to pay full-price for items.

As a long-term strategy, price cutting does not work. One problem retailers might face is that they start a price war with competitors. Once this happens, prices will keep on dropping and no one wins.

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The intense heat across much of the U.S. sparked an increase in demand for items such as air conditioners, fans, cold drinks, and summer apparel. During the first week of June, sales for air conditioners increased 20%, bottled sales went up 4%, and 6% for swimwear over the same week in 2007.

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Retail sales rose by 1%, the fastest increase in six months with the aid of nearly $50 billion in federal money.

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Kmart has joined forces with VenJuvo, a company specializing in consumer trade-in services, to offer the Trade4Credit(TM) program to Kmart.com customers. The Trade4Credit program provides an easy and reliable way for customers to receive a Kmart gift card in exchange for pre-owned electronics including MP3 Players, digital cameras, and gaming systems.

The Trade4Credit program is a great way for retailers such as Kmart to build customer loyalty. More retailers should be exploring this opportunity.

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Online retailer Zappos recently started paying employees up to $1500 to quit the company during initial training sessions. Is this just a PR stunt? Are they crazy?

The bottom line is that satisfied and happy employees provide great customer service. As a customer, who wants to deal with an unhappy employee? It affects the overall customer experience. I think this is a great idea for Zappos or for any other company to weed out employees who could potentially affect the customer experience in a negative way.

For instance, let’s say that I am a satisfied and loyal Zappos customer that spends on average $250/ year at Zappos.com. This means over the next 25 years I will spend $6,250. One day I get on the phone with an unsatisfied employee that really pisses me off. Because of this negative experience, I stop purchasing from Zappos. That’s $6,250 worth of potential revenue lost. How about if the unsatisfied employee pisses off four other similar customers in one month? Zappos will lose $31,250 worth of potential revenue just because one employee created a negative experience for five customers. Imagine if you had a couple more unsatisfied employees and they piss off at least 5 customers a month. You do the math. If you think $1,500 is too much to weed out unsatisfied employees think again.

Consumers plan to spend an average of $94.54 this year compared to last year’s $98.34 for Father’s Day. It comes as no surprise that consumers are cutting their budget due to higher gas prices and the increasing cost of living.

Of those surveyed, 32.5% plan to shop at retail department stores, 31% at discounters, 28.1% at specialty stores, 18% with online retailers, and 7.9% also plan on shopping at specialty clothing stores.

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