Xbox Slim On Sale

mhiscock — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:39:11 +0000

This week marks the release of the Xbox Slim and no doubt demand will be high and many stores will run out of stock very quickly. As we’ve seen in recent months with the new iPhone and iPad, huge surges in demand can play havoc with many retailers stock levels and can leave many shoppers disappointed and in the current climate, no retailer wants to have to deal with any more disgruntled customers then they have to!

Such surges in demand and the risk of products running quickly out of stock on the high street has driven more and more customers to the web where they are well versed with the plethora of product listing sites now accessible over the internet. Many retailers are getting wiser to the importance of having visibility on these, yet I am still surprised at the numbers who aren’t keeping their stock availability up to date online.

If products are on many sites, then understandably it can seem an arduous tasks to ensure the stock numbers online are kept accurate, but both customers and sites such as Amazon are demanding this real time information as the online customer experience becomes more and more important. Nothing is worse for Amazon than an item ‘appearing’ to be in stock online only for the customer to find after purchasing it that it has in fact sold out, which can cause huge problems for the retailer in its relationship with Amazon.

We developed Feed Manager as a solution to this problem as we found that many retailers had the information available to update their product feeds, but simply didn’t have the ‘thing’ that could feed this information out to the web and where it needed to go. There are many strategies for retailers to achieve maximum results and Feed Manager is the most advanced solution on the market for adapting the data it receives in from the retailer and using it for whatever purpose the retailer needs.

With Christmas just around the corner, stock availability will be an critical issue for many retailers and so it is highly advisable to get their listing processes in order so that their online product display matches the real picture in the warehouse.

Cash is the most expensive way of buying loyalty

ecook — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:00:15 +0000

Loyalty programmes specialist The Logic Group has found that although nearly half of all adults are signed up to loyalty schemes they don’t take part in them. Is anyone surprised?

Loyalty is a currency that a retailer has to earn through customer service and care. Customer loyalty is spent every time the store is out of stock, it takes too long to get through the checkout or you have to return a defective product.

I’m fabulously loyal to Tesco because they care about me as a customer. My return on the money I spend with them is 4%* – match that, bankers! They are generous with their money off vouchers, sending me things that I usually appreciate such as money off vouchers for fresh fruit instead of crisps because that’s what I buy. They give me vouchers for 5p off my petrol and they let me return anything if I change my mind about it. Okay, they might be an evil monolithic corporation but they’re so convenient and such good value. Even when I spent two years without a club card they didn’t forget me, emailing me every quarter and matching up my online shopping account so I still earned points.

Amazon never give me anything for nothing but they do care about me (in a database-powered sort of way) and talk to me nearly every day. I still shop with them and they’re my first port of call for nearly everything.

My Nectar card never worked that well. I don’t even care enough to remember why. I haven’t heard from them in eons, although I would have started using the card if they’d sent me a new one. They don’t even email me, which is a shame because they used to give me cool vouchers I could use at my favourite clothes store. I don’t know if they even count me as a member any more. They don’t care about me.

It’s not the money or the gifts that bring loyalty. It’s the love shown. 34% of people in the survey said good customer service would motivate them to spend more whilst said bad customer service was the top reason why brands lose loyalty.

Show your customers some love. Keep the channels of communication open and make sure you listen twice as much as you talk. If it’s too much work to keep up your mailing list or loyalty programme then for goodness sake! outsource it. Don’t throw your customers away.

Gillissa News » Amazon

Xbox Slim On Sale

Cash is the most expensive way of buying loyalty