[Source: About.com Retail Industry: What's Hot Now
]Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, so how are U.S. retailers weathering the 2007 holiday season? Here is the latest consumer spending and retail sales information for the 2007 holiday season.
[Source: Footwear News
]“We view our retail partners as an extension of the Saucony team, so this honor is really a collaboration as we continue to make significant headway in the independent specialty running channel”
Saucony, Inc., a subsidiary of Collective Brands, Inc. , and a leading global supplier of performance athletic footwear and apparel, was recognized as “Vendor of the Year” and the brand’s ProGrid Omni 6 named … via Runnersweb.com
[Source: Footwear News
]More than 10,000 workers have walked off the job at a South Korean-owned plant that makes sneakers for Nike Inc., demanding higher pay to keep pace with rising prices in booming Vietnam, officials said … via PR-inside.com
[Source: Computerworld Retail News
]Online retailers are doing a better job of preparing their Web sites for the crush of holiday shoppers, raising the customer-satisfaction level a notch this season, a survey finds.
[Source: Computerworld Retail News
]E-tailers’ hopes for Cyber Monday were met, and how — shoppers on November 26 spent a whopping $733 million online, a one-day record. Wii consoles and Zunes were moving with particular speed.
[Source: Yahoo! Finance: Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry News
]Brown Shoe Co., which operates Famous Footwear retail stores, on Wednesday lowered fiscal 2007 earnings and sales guidance based on lower expectations for Famous Footwear and wholesale sales.
[Source: Yahoo! Finance: Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry News
]Shares of Deckers Outdoor Corp. reached an all-time high on Tuesday, after an analyst initiated coverage on the maker of UGGs and Teva shoes with a “Buy” rating.
[Source: Yahoo! Finance: Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry News
]Another shareholder has filed a lawsuit against the shoemaker Crocs Inc., accusing executives of misleading shareholders about operations while selling off their own stock for at least $64 million.
[Source: Computerworld Retail News
]What do Buy.com, Eddie Bauer, J.Crew, Costco and Toys R Us have in common? All had sluggish Web sites as shoppers rushed to find deals online last Friday and on “Cyber Monday,” according to Keynote Systems.
[Source: Smallbiztechnology.com
]I was quite surprised this morning to scan the headlines and see that Intuit has purchased Homestead Technologies – one of the best services for small businesses to build web sites.Why did Intuit do this?Intuit’s QuickBooksand its related small business products can only grow Intuit so much. Although there are and will continue to be millions of small businesses buying Intuit software, Intuit needs to do smart acquisitions, like buying Homestead, to grow.
The other side of this story is it must find companies with a culture that is like Intuit’s (friendly, passionate about customers, and etc). Homestead fits this bill perfectly and its embodied in its founder and CEO Justin Kitch (pictured here playing the guitar).
Read his blog post on the deal here.
Web site building is still a hassle for many small businesses and Intuit’s own commissioned study showed that many small businesses still do not have web sites. This is why Intuit bought Homestead.
What does the new, flush with cash, Homestead need to do now?
Homestead needs to now offer more features and split it’s customer base into 2 segments. There are those customers who just want a basic web site, a digital brochure. But then there are those who want more – they want blogging, podcasts, RSS feeds and avatars. Homestead, in the next 60 days should quickly roll out these features to this segment of customers.
Homestead should also do all it can to educate customers in segment one, on the benefits that the customers in segment 2 have. Other features for segment 2, or Web 2.0 customers would include blogging software.
What does this mean to your business?
Intuit already has a broad ecosystem of offerings, to help small businesses manage their business – mainly their accounting. With the purchase of Homestead, they now have a service for web site development.
If you are already a QuickBooks users, you can expect that Intuit will offer you more products and services. As Dell is offering a range of IT services, Intuit is and wants to offer more business management services.
What should Intuit do next?
Intuit now needs to to 2 main things. 1) make 1 or 2 more strategic acquisitions for CRM (including email marketing and more online marketing services – maybe via Homestead). 2) They then need to offer these services under one platform – as NetBooks is doing.
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