sales
The Unlikely Story of Apple's iPad, One Year In
Jan. 27 was the day Steve Jobs referred to Apple’s new iPade as “magical and revolutionary.” Now, a year later, Apple’s sold nearly 8 million iPads to consumers.What's next for them? Full article.
IPhones, iPads to Gain NFC Payment Features
The director of consulting firm Envisioneering Group recently said that Apple Inc. plans to introduce services on the iPhone and iPad computer that would allow it to get a piece of the market for goods and services and allow Apple to cut its own costs and those of retailers selling Apple products. Full article.
Encourage customers to complain
Many times your customers will not tell you when you have alienated them, but will simply go away. There are several things businesses can do to counteract this trend, including posting signs that encourage customers to voice their complaints, getting counter staff and sales people to make eye contact with customers, and actually calling customers to find out why they stopped using your business or service. Full article.
Facebook ramps up E-Commerce
Facebook is ramping up efforts to entice companies such as Delta and J.C. Penney to sell wares on its pages and convert its users into online shoppers. It’s also adding e-commerce features to attract users, keep them logged-on longer, and generate higher advertising sales in an effort to compete with sites like eBay. Full article.
Google E-Books
Google is ready to enter the world of E-books, and will introduce Google Editions by the end of the year. Editions will allow users to buy E-books from Google, web sites or independent bookstores. Customers can set up an account for buying books, store them in a library and read them on internet-ready devices including smartphones and tablets. Full article.
Wal-Mart to Price Match Competitors’ Black Friday Ads
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, said it will match the price of competitors’ ads on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Weekend savings will begin with Thanksgiving Day online specials on Nov. 25 and will run through Saturday. Customers with ads from competitors, such as Target Corp. and Sears Holding Corp., will be able to obtain those promotional prices at any Wal-Mart store. Full article.
How to plan for Black Friday and be successful
Black Friday is a day die-hard shoppers dream of, and if you want to be successful, experts recommend setting clear priorities for what you want to buy and where, crafting a plan for the day, shopping in teams with friends and shopping the Web by smart phone while standing in line. Full article.
Stores push Black Friday into October
Attention bargain shoppers! It is October — and Black Friday specials are here! The year’s most popular discount shopping event, referring to the Friday after Thanksgiving, is arriving ahead of Halloween this year, with some promotions beginning the week of Halloween and others throughout November. Recession-trained customers are pushing stores to offer big deals now or risk losing out to competitors, though there is some skepticism about how significant some of the early discounts are. Full article.
Twitter turns to Ads
In the last two weeks, Twitter introduced several advertising plans and courted Madison Avenue at Advertising Week, the annual industry conference. Although Twitter has fewer than 20 of the company’s 300 employees work on advertising, that is in contrast to one just three months ago. Next year, Twitter plans to offer a self-serve tool for local businesses to buy Twitter ads. Full article.
Getting the best out of your creative people
Creativity is even more important in times when sales are harder to come by and customers are less loyal. If you need more creative ideas and can't afford to invest more resources to get them, you'll have to get better results out of your existing creative types by better focusing their activities. Help them to think inside a very carefully designed box, by spelling out as specifically as possible the (legitimate) constraints you're under, and then demand solutions that work within those constraints. Full article. Similar article.
