[Source: Small Business Branding

For a long time, those of us who have a web presence have used web statistics to tell us how well our site is doing. We use it to figure out what kind of traffic we’re getting, what content brings in the traffic, who sends us the traffic, what people are searching for, what people use to access your content and more. These are all important.

The problem, web stats don’t tell us who these visitors are. The ‘other side’ of the information like demographics. If you’ve been in business for a while, you more or less have an idea who your audience is. You get that by talking to them on the phone or during webinars and teleseminars. You meet them face to face. You correspond throug emails, blog comments, social networks and more. But are these same people the ones who visit your web site? Is your web site really speaking to your target audience or not?

Do you know…

• What kinds of income bracket are they?
• Are you serving more women than men?
• Are you visitors more likely to be of a certain ethnic group?
• What age brackets are most of your visitors from?
• Do they have children?
• Are they college educated?
• What kind of lifestyle do they lead?

If you don’t, you can use Quantcast to find out. Quantcast is stats tracker that tracks the finer stuff like these. What’s also cool, they tell you what else your audience will like – great for researching new topics, new affiliate products to promote or create your own products. If there’s enough information on a web site, you’ll also find out what other web sites your audience visits.

On the flip side, because you can look up any web site from Quantcast, it’s a great free tool for some competitive snooping or checking out a site you want to advertise on. Of course, it goes without saying that you can’t get statistics for every web site out there. Especially the smaller sites and sometimes the larger sites are estimates. And some publishers choose to hide some of the data.

You may think you know your audience well, but try it out and see how close you really are from your target.

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[Source: In-Store & Retail Media News

“It’s a little depressing, but if you’re smart now, you’ll be better off in the long run.”

That’s a comment from Leonard Stiff, a chef-caterer quoted in Business Week in yet another article trying to gauge how consumers are reacting to the ongoing recession. Mr. Stiff sums up what, to me, seems like the best philosophy for both the average citizen and the average retail company. The question, of course, is how to be smart — and indeed, the best way to do so: let customers know you think they’re savvy.

Business Week’s summary points to the obvious: people are still buying enough items to keep Wal-Mart and the various incarnations of the Dollar Store afloat. At the same time, they are certainly searching for bargains and coupons, passing information along to their friends via email. And finally, the news that retailers keep staring at, like the deer in the proverbial headlights: people are making immediate cutbacks and trade offs, while postponing certain kinds of purchases indefinitely. As we’ve already pointed out, generics and in-house premium lines are also making a dent in brand loyalty.

Speaking with Kai Ryssdal on Marketplace, Buyology author Martin Lindstrom summed up the crisis:

“We will see that this Christmas is probably going to be the worst in 24 years. And I think the main reason why is because the first time ever we are realizing this is serious stuff. This time it’s almost like we got a slap on the chin. And with that slap on the chin….. people wake up and they start to say, “Hey, I have to buy stuff differently.” And what happens is people literally change stores, people literally change the path down the supermarket aisle. And they have never done that before, but that is the change we are facing right now, and retailers are realizing that.”

The Center for Media Research offers some nice recent data about what people are doing these days when they go to the mall: they’re still going, as I’ve pointed out, but they’re not frequenting department stores as much and they’re not venturing too far off the beaten path. The most common comment I’ve heard, both in person and in the news, has been “no more retail therapy for me.”

So how can retailers react to the slap on the chin? From watching shoppers since mid-September, I have some tentative but I think fairly obvious conclusions:

• One, people will limit their purchases to items that “matter more,” both for everyday needs and for long term use.
• Two, people will be deciding more carefully exactly what “matters more” and using new criteria to decide what’s worth the money. (My prediction: “green” and “healthy” will hold steady).
• Three, there will be even more market segmentation: some people will be frugal because they have to be and it will be a new experience and a struggle; some people will be frugal because it’s tacky to spend when others are suffering and, well, let’s be clear: no one knows how long this will last. Others will continue to spend, but in patterns that will, at first, be unrecognizable according to current market logic.
• Four, while consumers may be enticed by bargains, expect them to bring a whole new wealth of knowledge (from word-of-mouth, social media, and general on-line sources) to their in-store decision making.

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[Source: Computerworld Retail News

Online researcher ComScore said that online sales this month have declined compared to last year, and that it projects that online sales for the full holiday season will be comparable to 2007.

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[Source: Footwear News

Reebok International Ltd. has opened “Reebok Flash,” the brand’s first pop-up store, in a 3000 square-foot gallery space in New York.

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[Source: Yahoo! Finance: Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry News

Shares of Brown Shoe Co. tumbled on Monday after an analyst lowered his rating, saying the shoe company is seeing more consumers pulling back their spending amid the weakening economy.

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[Source: Multichannel Merchant Most Recent

An announcement wasn’t expected until next week, but the U.S. Postal Service confirmed Thursday that it was moving up the date for next year’s price increases for shipping services from May to Jan. 18.

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[Source: Yahoo! Finance: Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry News

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[Source: Yahoo! Finance: Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry News

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[Source: The Retail Bulletin

At the end of October 2008, British retailers protested to Europe’s top competition regulator, alleging that Mastercard had “significantly” increased the cost of using its branded debit and credit cards and that this would mean price rises for consumers.

By Andrew Chandler

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[Source: The Retail Bulletin

Early figures show UK shoppers are less discouraged by the economic downturn in the run up to Christmas.

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