Kohl’s was not always the high-flying retailer it is now. At one time, they did not have designers such as Vera Wang, and Lauren Conrad designing clothes for them. They were flying under the radar with their clever marketing tools such as Kohl’s cash and their sales strategy.
At first, if a customer spent $50 in the store, then they would receive $5 Kohl’s cash. Kohl’s slowly increased that to $10 for $50 you spend, and then in the 2010 holiday season for a few days they were offering $15 Kohl’s cash for every $50 you spend to attract more customers during the tough economic recession.

JCPenney saw how successful Kohl’s cash was and they responded by introducing JCP cash similar to Kohl’s cash except it comes in a different increments. You can print your JCP cash online and they take it the store. For example, if you spend $100 or more you can save $20 bucks. If you spend $75 or more you can save $15, and if you spend $50 or more you can save $10. The key difference is Kohl’s cash is earned while you shop, you cannot print out Kohl’s cash prior to shopping. JCPenney allows their customers to print their JCP cash online and take it to the store to use prior to shopping.

JCPenney has also adopted Kohl’s sales strategy. Kohl’s is known for having a “Night Owl” sale on Friday normally from 3PM-11PM, and then an “Early Bird” on Saturday normally from 7AM-1 PM. JCPenney has picked up on this, and calls their sale “Doorbusters”. Their Friday Doorbuster goes from 3PM-close, and then on Saturday from 9AM-1PM.

Retail Giant Wal-mart has gone back to basics so to speak, Wal-Mart Stores Inc is launching a campaign early next month called “It’s. Back,” It’s their way of telling customer that despite its recent efforts of removing certain items in what can only be described as a floored renovation effort. From early May Wal-Mart will herald the return of items such as fishing tackle, fabric items and other so called “heritage” items. The store removed these items from their outlets in a failed attempt of sprucing up the store’s image with upmarket shoppers and the general perception of the cliental it targets.

Market Analysts say Consumer spending is up due to increasing Gasoline prices. Retail sales increased significantly by 0.4% last month making it the ninth consecutive gain in a row. On the other hand, however it is worth noting that Auto sales are on the decline due to climbing Oil prices and other factors like cost of living and so forth. Economists are predicting that a payroll tax cut and job growth will boost consumer sales for the rest of the year. Analysts are also concerned. However, that spike’s in energy prices may not leave shoppers with as much to spend as usual.

Car makers around the world are bracing for what could be the biggest
parts shortage the industry has ever seen, already Ford has been
forced to cut production due to supply orders unable to be met. Toyota
is another industry giant who has suffered huge reductions in car
productions as the ripple effect by the tsunami that hit Japan. It is
140,000 vehicles short on its usual production for the year. The parts
shortage is expected to continue indefinitely as most of the building
where the parts are produced were totally wiped out by the tsunami. It
is indeed dark times for the global automotive industry.

The VP of European Marketplaces at eBay, Clare Gilmartin, hopes for no surprises in today’s Budget. The VP was quoted as saying “The government should focus on measures that will increase consumer confidence and spending levels in today’s Budget”, this comes ahead of concerns that online shoppers are not feeling as safe as they once we’re using credit cards to purchase things online. EBay has recently published new data that indicates consumer spending returned to typical seasonal levels in February. Some recent falls in consumer confidence have made certain items see a drop in regular sales such as fridges and freezers that have dropped by as much as 12 percent in the recent months compared with this time last year..

Transformers characters and the Ken dolls are just a few of the toy retail sells that are expected to rise in 2011. Retail jobs are looking bright as 2011 promises retail business a surge in sales. U.S toy retail sales rose 2 percent in 2010 after declines in 2009 and 2008, with sales in the recent holiday quarter up 3 percent. Retail business in the toy market is looking bright according to Carter Keithley, president of the Toy Industry Association. Many toy makers are excited about their retail sales in 2011 and hope to put the lackluster sales of the past behind them.

I guess a lot of consumers learned the hard lesson the past couple of years. Most consumers will be on a budget this year paying only by cash on what they can afford. Most credit card companies are giving out very lucrative offers when you use their credit cards to charge on holiday items. But retail customers are getting smarter and only using cash on things they can afford.

Big retailer WalMart will start selling the e reader Nook at the
Walmart Stores. I don’t why they never did this kinda of a deal with Walmart before, the nook
is sold at the Best Buy stores already, Walmart is huge and Nook would be getting
huge amount of sales power with coming together with Walmart.

Seems like more shoppers shop while at work. It saves a lot of time, when you don’t have to
go after work to the mall or any retail store looking for items. From Ebay to
other huge online sites, you can buy anything with a click of a mouse and have it shipped
to you quickly without going anywhere. While working, you are doing two things at once, and
I sense it only growing as holiday season rolls around.

More Retailers including Walmart, Walgreens and others
are marketing the H1N1 vaccine to lure more customers
into their stores. In return, they will play a bigger
role in the Healthcare system with the new Healthcare plan
being passed by Congress. Even tho most retailers don’t
make any profit off these shots, it does let the customers
come into the store and look around on what these retailers
have to offer.CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY.