The third most popular social network, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined. With over 25 million users, the social network is currently experiencing a “whopping 400% month-over-month growth.”

Considering Pinterest’s phenomenal rise to the top of the social tier, visual emulations were inevitable. We’ve witnessed countless variations of the image-focused, block design trending across the web. Yet not many have taken this Pinterest inspiration as far as Walmart, Sears and Kmart. We delve deeper into how they recreated this successful, visual shopping experience – in very different ways on their own sites – below.

Walmart

Along with maintaining a profile on Pinterest, the retail corporation took the visual influence one step further with the “Trending Now” section of Walmart.com. They encourage users to “Get Inspired,” and offer trend filters by way of store department sections. They also include top searched for terms of the day.

Each image includes a reason for why it’s trending. For instance, some of the recent ones are labeled: “New Pin,” “Just Reviewed,” and “Best Seller.” This is an excellent way to highlight products as well as add value for customers.

Integrating social networks, Walmart provides the option to tweet, pin or “like” the item in the picture along with looking at the product page on-site. So although it does look a lot like Pinterest at first, it incorporates Facebook and Twitter elements too. Walmart demonstrates an effective way to improve your site with the increasing social and visual elements online.

Image Credit: Business2Community.com

Sears & Kmart

The two retailers teamed up – along with Land’s End and My Gofer – for “Shop Your Way,” a digital-focused loyalty program. Hosted on its own site – separate from the retailers – Shop Your Way is essentially an e-commerce focused version of Pinterest. The overarching options are broken down into sections such as departments, brands, stores, topics, etc.

To learn more about their initiative, read the full article here.

Beginning in fall 2013, University of Southern Indiana students can take advantage of a new purchasing program at the campus bookstore. Students will have the option of charging textbooks and supplies to their accounts with the Bursar’s Office, which will combine bookstore fees with tuition and other University expenses, allowing students to set up payment plans that best fit their needs.

“As an institution sensitive to costs and with student success at the core of our mission, we feel allowing students to charge required books and supplies is a good decision,” said Steve Bridges, assistant vice president for Finance and Administration and assistant treasurer. “It’s a service that we feel strongly about offering and that is not available from other book providers. The days of a student not having the tools to be successful have ended.”

The bookstore also will continue its initiative to encourage students to support their University and save money by matching textbook rental prices. If students find lower rental prices at local stores, they are encouraged to alert bookstore staff and rental prices will be matched. Verification of the current published price is required and the matching program does not apply to online vendors.

More changes are expected at the University bookstore this summer. A major remodeling  scheduled to be complete in July will include a new name and enhanced policies and products.  Read more here.

The MBS POS accepts a variety of payment options including Bursar Accounts. Talk with your MBS Systems Sales Consultant to learn more!

As the number of smartphone-toting shoppers has increased, so too has the specter of showrooming. No retailer wants to think a competitor, especially a virtual retailer without the overhead of a brick-and-mortar location, has effectively set up shop in their store. But up to now, it hasn’t been clear just how big a deal showrooming really is.

It turns out it’s huge. And it also turns out that shoppers with smartphones might not be the threat retailers thought they were.

According to a new study from the Google Shopper Council, a group of shopper marketing experts, 84 percent of mobile shoppers use their phones to assist them in their shopping while in physical stores.

The council’s new report, ”Mobile In-Store Research: How in-store shoppers are using mobile devices,” said the single largest task for devices in store, as reported by 82 percent of respondents, was using mobile search to find information about products. Other activities included comparing prices (53 percent), finding offers and promotions (39 percent), finding locations of other stores (36 percent) and finding the hours of the store (35 percent).

What’s more, the Google report said that web surfing on a mobile device wasn’t just used for expensive or “high consideration” purchases. Instead, the report found that in every category, from household items to pet care, 70 percent of smartphone users consulted their devices in-store.

The Silver Lining

Even with all the reliance on smartphones while shopping, the Google Shopper report uncovered some surprising good news for retailers: the basket size, i.e., the amount of a shopper’s purchase during any one trip, was 25 to 50 percent higher for frequent smartphone users than moderate smartphone users. Whereas the average user spent $250 per trip, frequent smartphone users spent $350 per trip.

“(U)nderstanding and embracing this new retail behavior can open up new opportunities for brands to connect with customers in key consideration moments,” said  Adam Grunewald, product marketing manager for mobile ads at Google, in a post on the Google Mobile Ads blog.

Brick-and-mortar retailers have long favored highly visible investments, such as advertising or store design over spending hard-earned income on back-office information technology. In fact, the retail industry devotes only about 1.7% of revenue to IT. Compare that with banking, which spends about 6%.

Big-box and boutique retailers alike see that e-commerce competitors continue to use technology as a means to win on price and selection, and know their customers increasingly use smartphones in-store to compare prices or search for deals.

IBM’s latest Big Data-based retail forecast suggests that some brick-and-mortar retailers are turning the tide against showrooming, a trend in which consumers look at items in a store before ultimately buying them online, usually at lower prices. In order to remain competitive and press their advantage further, brick-and-mortar stores must look to the cloud computing revolution as a way to upgrade their technology without busting their budgets.

Cloud computing involves a new way of thinking about data. In a cloud, a single server can host many virtual servers, slashing hardware costs. The virtual servers can scale on demand depending on the need for computer capacity. That’s very useful for retailers, whose businesses are notoriously seasonal. Automatically expanding capacity on Black Friday, for example, can reduce lines at checkout counters and ensure quick service.

Further, the retail industry is aided by thousands of specialty software programs that are designed for various niches and needs. The average retail chain uses about 450 such applications — far more than most other industries. Naturally, those software programs get heavy use at certain times while they are shut down at others.

The result is that retailers use only about 10% to 15% of the computer capacity in their data centers. Some 85% is sitting idle at any time. Huge economies of scale could be gained by using the same infrastructure across multiple applications in a cloud-computing architecture.

As mobile, social and e-commerce continue to explode in popularity, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers must understand and harness the benefits of cloud computing to optimize the in-store experience, market to the individual and maximize every sale. If they don’t, they risk falling behind their competition.

Want to bring your store to the cloud? Talk with your MBS Systems Sales Consultant about how we can help!

“We’ve seen a steady increase in clothing and gift sales over the years, so we went where the dollars are,” he explained. “For that reason, a big part of the expansion was increasing our main sales floor. We tripled the area devoted to apparel and merchandise.”

The renovations resolved issues that had impeded traffic in the past, improving the overall experience for customers. For instance, shopping during busy events like game days was previously difficult because the floor was so packed with merchandise. Racks held two or three items, further reducing product visibility. So, when their location expanded, that was one of the first items Phelps and his staff addressed.

“We went section by section through the sales floor and adjusted each area to maximize its effectiveness. Now, there’s ample room to browse and everything has its own place; the transformation is truly amazing,” he emphasized.

The updates also presented the perfect opportunity to restructure the store’s layout.

“Our cash wrap area has been in the same place since 1972, and it was time for a change,” he described. “During the renovation, we reassessed everything and basically started over. We moved our entrance to face one of the busiest pedestrian corners on campus and situated our POS systems and checkout lanes accordingly.”

With an enhanced floor plan, the store has also been able to increase their offerings.

“Greek items, collegiate gifts, clothing; you name it, we have it!” Phelps added.

They’ve also added concept shops from big brands like Adidas, Jansport and Champion, giving the store a more retail-oriented experience. Despite the new focus, Phelps wanted to ensure that the look and feel of the store still reflected the campus atmosphere.

“We wanted students to know that they were coming into the official bookstore, so there are large lifestyle pictures hung throughout the store” he said. “The overall look is really neat; it’s bright, clean and definitely gives you the feeling that you’re in a fan shop.”

At their Grand Re-Opening event, held in early May, the store debuted the changes to their most important critics: their customers. And, the response they received was overwhelming. With thousands of students, faculty, staff and community members in attendance, they initiated their new location with a bang!

“’Wow’ was the first thing out of most people’s mouths as they entered,” Phelps described. “It’s such a drastic change and a completely new experience. The feedback has been amazing.”

Customers’ enthusiasm for the updated location was reflected in sales, as well. The store experienced sales that day that rivaled a big home football game.

“We were thrilled to receive such a positive reaction from the public,” Phelps said. “I think that the renovations will have a lasting impact on both sales and traffic. People are excited to come by and see us and that’s always a good thing!”

If you’re like most people that are active on social media, you’re probably paying more attention to how many retweets you get, and how often what you share is liked on LinkedIn or Facebook than you do to how often you are doing these things yourself. You’re probably thinking of all the ways you can use your social media accounts to promote your business and its products and services and drive traffic to your website.

In social media, we promote ourselves by promoting others. We attract attention to ourselves by shining a light on others.

Try this. Set a “giving budget” for your social media activities and actually identify some goals. How many “likes” do you want to give each week? How many times do you want to comment? If you’re connected to your clients on social networks, you should be setting a giving budget specifically for them.

Here are some easy ways to focus on giving more to your social networks:

1. Use lists and share content. Track influencers and clients using Twitter lists and Google+ circles, then try to share something from those people every day.

2. Pay some attention. Invest some time and mental energy each week to review the feeds (Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.) of your key influencers and clients and look for opportunities to comment and engage. People will take notice and reciprocate if you are consistently paying them attention.

3. Give credit where it’s due. When you share anything, mention the source. Say you discover a great article shared by a contact on LinkedIn and you tweet it, you should give that person credit on Twitter with a mention.

4. Like and comment thoughtfully. It’s easy to click ‘like’ on articles shared to Facebook, but take the extra time to read/scan what’s being shared and add a meaningful comment. “Great post” is a nice thought, but trying to be more thoughtful is a better investment.

The revolution that has swept the food industry is expanding to retail: origins matter.

With fair-trade coffee and organic fruit now standard on grocery shelves, consumers concerned with working conditions, environmental issues and outsourcing are increasingly demanding similar accountability for their T-shirts. The issue has been brought to the forefront by the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, which killed more than 800 people.

And some retailers are doing what was once unthinkable, handing over information about exactly how, and where, their products were made.

Everlane, an online boutique, last week added paragraphs to its website describing the factories where its products are made.

Nordstrom says it is considering adding information about clothes produced in humane working conditions.

An online boutique breaks down the number of workers involved in making each item and the cost of every component, while a textiles company intends to trumpet the fair-trade origins of its robes when Bed Bath & Beyond starts selling them this month.

And a group of major retailers and apparel companies, including some — like Nike and Walmart — with a history of controversial manufacturing practices overseas, says it is developing an index that will include labor, social and environmental measures.

New research indicates a growing consumer demand for information about how and where goods are produced. A study last year by professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard showed that some consumers — even those who were focused on discount prices — were not only willing to pay more, but actually did pay more, for clothes that carried signs about fair-labor practices.

“There’s real demand for sweat-free products,” said Ian Robinson, a lecturer and research scientist at the University of Michigan who studies labor issues. Consumers “don’t have the information they need, and they do care.”

The garment factory collapse that killed more than 800 workers in Bangladesh last month has added urgency to the movement, as retailers have seen queries stream in from worried customers.

“In the clothing industry, everybody wears it every day, but we have no idea where it comes from,” said Michael Preysman, Everlane’s chief executive and founder. “People are starting to slowly clue in to this notion of where products are made.”

Major retailers have long balked at disclosing the full trail, saying that sourcing is inherently complex — a sweater made in Italy may have thread, wool and dye from elsewhere. Another reason: Workplace protections are expensive, and cheap clothes, no matter where or how they are manufactured, still sell, as H&M, Zara and Joe Fresh show through their rapid expansion.

But labor advocates note that consumers’ appetite for more information may put competitive pressure on retailers who are less than forthcoming. In recent weeks, government officials, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, and labor and consumer advocates have cited the Bangladesh collapse in calling for the adoption of fair-trade standards or labeling. In direct response to what happened in Bangladesh, Everlane added information to its Web site about the factories where its clothing is made. “This factory is located 10 minutes from our L.A. office,” one description for a T-shirt reads . “Mr. Kim, the owner, has been in the L.A. garment business for over 30 years.”

Everlane says it will soon add cost breakdowns for all of its clothing, along with photographs of factories where that clothing is made and information about the production.

Mr. Preysman says Everlane has long received questions from customers “around where the products are sourced from and how we can tell that the labor is good.” It is an inexact science, he said. But he added that he looks for factories certified by independent outside organizations and has executives spend time with a factory’s owner to see if he or she “is a decent human being.”

Does your store disclose your apparel’s origins? Do you carry fair-trade brands such as Alta Gracia? Tell us about your experience in the comments section.

Many of these reverse showroomers feel passionately about the trend, especially when it comes to books. Their testaments are proof that brick and mortar bookstores aren’t going anywhere. Read a few of the responses she received below then view the full article for more inspiring testimonials:

I actually do the opposite. I find a book I want to read online then call a few local independent bookstores (yeah, call on the phone!) to see if they have it.

What I do makes no financial sense, but I love the relationship I have with bookstores in Brooklyn [David, a former Seattleite, recently moved to New York]. I don’t mind paying extra to support them.

To me, the bookstore is sacred space I go to and I having trusting relationships with the people who work there to introduce me to great books. I almost see the higher price as a consultation fee that I’m willing to pay.

-David Hoang

 

I don’t have a smartphone, so I actually do the opposite of showrooming. I check Amazon.com to look for publication dates of new books by my favorite authors. I then visit local independent bookstores and buy  the books. I only ordered books from Amazon once. I was not happy about the way they were shipped or delivered. … I’ll pay the real price for my books, AND keep bricks and mortar retailers alive, any day.

-Karen Ellis

In the 18 months since I joined the National Retail Federation, I’ve been struck repeatedly by how rapidly our industry continues to evolve. As we all know, retail has always changed and adapted — and in just the past 20 years we’ve advanced from then-radical game changer Amazon.com to more recent models like Hointer, which boasts what amounts to online shopping in a store.

There is a distinct theme emerging around all of this evolution. In an increasingly competitive market, it’s no longer just about new technology. Instead, retailers are now looking across the enterprise at all their assets with a keen eye to leveraging the full range of infrastructure, human talent, and, yes, technology, in their arsenal. And it’s not just the sum of those assets that counts — it’s how retailers are using and adapting them to create even greater value.

The urgency behind all of this, of course, is keeping up with the radically changing customer — from how they adopt and use technology to the products and service they expect, with zero regard for our industry’s notions of “channels” or other traditional ways of doing things. The good news: this rapid rate of customer change is pushing us as retailers to deliver products and services so much faster and more creatively than we would otherwise. For any retailer to be truly competitive today, the pressure to continuously reinvent oneself is absolutely vital.

All of this tells me that we’re already in the midst of the next chapter in retailing, and that the next several new chapters likely lie just ahead. Retailing feels distinctly different than it did even just a few months ago.

While none of us has a crystal ball to know exactly what the future holds, the priority is to identify and produce points of view on trends, business models, technologies and strategies that are shaping the role of digital in retail right now. As we move forward in the evolution of digital commerce, my advice is to keep an open mind, watch emerging trends, set aside some budget to adopt and test quickly, and listen closely to your customers — all tenets that have kept our industry in good stead for many years.

Noticing major brands were taking advantage of the application’s popularity, University Store at University of Wyoming decided the time was right to run a SnapChat contest of their own.

“We keep tabs on other brands’ social media efforts, and Taco Bell is one that seems to be pretty innovative,” explained Ed Hays, assistant manager. “They’ve done great things on Twitter, and now they’re integrating SnapChat, as well. It made me wonder if any of our students were on the app and how we could use it to connect.”

On a whim, Hays decided to create a promotion to find out.

“It was very spur of the moment,” he added. “We like to experiment so I thought, ‘why not?!’”

Using the store’s current audience on Facebook and Twitter as a starting point, he encouraged students to follow their SnapChat account for access to secret promotions. The following day, the store sent all of their followers a picture with instructions to enter the contest via the app.

“We just typed the contest description into a word document and took a picture of it; it wasn’t very sophisticated, but it worked.”

And the race was on! The first person to respond by sending a picture of the store’s mascot, Steamboat, would win an outdoor furniture set, an unclaimed prize left over from a previous store promotion.

“We had a winner within 15 seconds,” Hays said. “It’s amazing how fast social media moves; it definitely makes you feel good – like we must be doing something right!”

With one SnapChat promotion under his belt, Hays is eager to expand the store’s presence on the app. In his opinion, the best demographic to start with is incoming freshmen.

“Their generation grew up on social media, so they’re even more active than our older students and are experimenting with all the newest applications,” he explained. “Freshmen orientation is just a few weeks away, so I have until then to decide exactly how I want to incorporate SnapChat.”

Regardless of which strategy he chooses, the takeaway Hays finds most significant from his recent contest is the need for exploration.

“It’s so important to continually investigate new resources and other avenues to connect with students,” he emphasized. “You never know what works until you try!”