[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. (click here for original article)

[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 (click here for original article)

[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 (click here for original article)

[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. (click here for original article)

[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. (click here for original article)

[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. (click here for original article)

[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. (click here for original article)

[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. (click here for original article)

[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. (click here for original article)

[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. (click here for original article)

[Source: Footwear News ] Genesco Inc., the shoe retailer seeking to be bought by Finish Line Inc., said it received a subpoena from the U.S. attorney's office in New York related to its merger agreement. via Bloomberg (click here for original article)

[Source: Computerworld Retail News ] Online shopping on Cyber Monday in the U.S. could top $700 million, a new record for online spending, according to comScore. (click here for original article)

[Source: Smallbiztechnology.com ]Getting large files from one place to another has traditionally been a pain. You could burn a CD or USB thumb drive and mail the files. If you had an FTP (file transfer protocol) server you could use an FTP server (imagine an online version of Windows Explorer) - but it's complicated to set up and cumbersome to use. (more...)

[Source: Footwear News ] "We didn't want this to be about in-your-face-entertainment" November 21, 2007 By Shahnaz Mahmud Basketball great Baron Davis is the star of Reebok's new branded entertainment effort, as he's featured in the short indie film, Framed. via Brandweek (click here for original article)

[Source: Smallbiztechnology.com ]Last week Microsoft released Office Accounting 2008 with new and improved features. One of the powerful new features that I talked about with Rajat Taneja, General Manager, Small Business Applications and Services is the integration of traditional software and online services in Office and in this case Office Accounting. While many companies, such as Google & Salesforce.com, are preaching the hosted applications and software as a service only model, Microsoft continues to show that software is still important and critical for day to day business tasks. Integrating online services into software is a POWERFUL combination. One of the tight integrations in Office Accounting Rajat and his team showed me was eBay. Without ever leaving Office Accounting a user can manage their eBay sales. Imagine more and more online services integrated into Office Accounting. Instead of visiting 3 different web sites, to do 3 different activities you can do it all from within Office. This also saves from entering information multiple times. The challenge for Microsoft will be extending its traditional Office platform and showing small businesses the true value of the integration between software and hosted applications. Through Office Live Small Business, Microsoft is enabling small businesses to manage contacts, market their business, build a web site and share documents outside of Microsoft Office - via the Internet. I found the very tight integration between Microsoft Outlook and Office Accounting to be quite good. For example, you can create contacts and manage invoices and quotes from Outlook Business Contact Manager or Microsoft Office Outlook. Office Accounting is currently available in two editions: Office Accounting Professional, ERP $199.95 (U.S.), for established small businesses, and Office Accounting Express, free, for startups and home-based businesses. Both editions are available for download in English (http://www.ideawins.com) and Spanish (http://www.ideawins.com/espanol) in the United States. The U.K. version is available for download from http://www.msofficeaccounting.co.uk. A 60-day free trial of Office Accounting Professional is also available for download. (click here for original article)

[Source: Smallbiztechnology.com ] Your telephone is a powerful tool EVERY day in your business. But for some businesses, especially retailers, the telephone gets an extra work out during the holiday season. Every customer is different and so there's not ONE solution for all customers. However, if you sell great products, all your holiday shopping customers have two things in common.

• They need to buy gifts for Christmas and other holidays
• They know your competition is only ONE click away

Your telephone can be a VERY powerful tool to boost holiday sales, here's how some RingCentral customers are using their virtual phone service to boost sales. GiveAGiftBasket.com is adding a Click-to-call button on every page of their site, and on all employee's email signatures. Owner Tracy Dixon hires seasonal help during the holidays and sets up RingCentral extensions for each department on her toll-free number to help direct customers as quickly as possible. "I like how everything is all in one. As a small business, I want to get as many features as possible all in one place. It helps me to always put my best foot forward." ZiaModa is a high-end fashion outlet specializing in sourcing the highest quality products from around the world. Their toll free number enables them to provide a customized, personal service to every single customer. If you're going to boost holiday sales this season, and for the next 12 months, you must be able to think strategically, implement quickly and refine your strategy as needed. Here's some basic tools for boosting sales, getting new customers and and keeping the ones you have.

• Email marketing (services - Icontact, Constant Contact)
• Web site (most web sites look pretty bad - invest money for a professional web designer to make it look better)
• Social media tools like RSS feeds and podcasts can be an important way to communicate to some of your customers
• Many people want to speak to a human. Work with Gotvmail, RingCentral, VirtualPBX or others to make sure your telephone rings and rings well

(click here for original article)

[Source: The Retail Bulletin ] Online shoppers' fears of being 'click pocketed' - becoming the victim of cyber fraud - is costing Britain's e-commerce sector £23 billion* a year, new research reveals. (click here for original article)

[Source: Wired Top Stories ] Malware-spiked ads have been making their way onto DoubleClick's ad network, showing up on major sites including The Economist, Canada.com and MLB.com. A marketing firm associated with the Russian Business Network, a secretive ISP, appears to be behind the campaign. (click here for original article)

[Source: All MCM Content ] Catalogers can breathe a sigh of relief: It’s official that postal rate increases will follow the Postal Reform bill passed 11 months ago. (click here for original article)

[Source: Yahoo! Finance: Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry News ] Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation announces that a class action lawsuit has been commenced in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado on behalf of purchasers of the common stock of CROCS Inc. between July 27, 2007 and October 31, 2007, inclusive. (click here for original article)

[Source: Yahoo! Finance: Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry News ] When we last visited the footwear sector in May of this year, quite a few shoe companies were walking on air as stock prices soared and market caps took off for the races. Sprint forward to today and, oh, how the times have seemingly changed. (click here for original article)

[Source: Computerworld Retail News ] When you think of retail security breaches you may think of TJX, and it's hard not to. But a survey of over 3,000 U.S. retail shops revealed that the next big breach could come from just about anywhere -- not least because wireless security appears to be an utter non-priority for a troubling number of stores. (click here for original article)

[Source: Send2Press Newswire ] SANDPOINT, Idaho - Nov. 14 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Even with years of usability studies and information to draw on, many shopping carts are poorly designed and a source of frustration for online customers. The holiday shopping season is approaching and Susan Daffron of Logical Expressions, Inc. has a few tips for merchants that are inspired by her book "Web Business Success: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Web Sites That Work" (ISBN: 978-0-9749245-0-2; LCCN-2006909228). Daffron says that the key to increasing online sales this holiday season is to make it easy for customers to complete their online transactions. (click here for original article)

[Source: Retailnet.com: Retail Industry News ] Recent research shows that despite an anticipated double-digit increase in online sales this holiday season, consumers can expect a better online shopping experience.According to Richard Feinberg, director of the Center for Customer-Driven Quality and a researcher with the Purdue University's R (click here for original article)

[Source: Retailnet.com: Retail Industry News ]According to the fifth annual National Retail Federation (NRF) Gift Card Survey conducted by BIGresearch, as gift cards become increasingly convenient, more personalized and more sought after, retailers can expect to see an increase in gift card sales this holiday season. (click here for original article)

[Source: Yahoo! Finance: Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry News ] Phoenix Footwear Group, Inc. , a multi-brand footwear and accessories company, announced today continued progress on its revitalization plan as well as consolidated results for its third quarter and nine months ended September 29, 2007. (click here for original article)

[Source: NRF SmartBrief ] With statistics showing $8 billion in gift cards were not redeemed last year, Consumer Reports has created a public education -More- Epsilon's New Mover file provides information on 1.8 million monthly new movers and is compiled from over 400 sources. Updated monthly or weekly, depending on your needs, Epsilon's new mover file provides an inexhaustible source of new customers with enormous purchasing power. www.epsilon.com. (click here for original article)

[Source: Yahoo! Finance: Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry News ] NIWOT, Colo.----According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly seven percent of the U.S. population is suffering from diabetes. Crocs Rx™, the medical division of Crocs, Inc. , today announced the American Podiatric Medical Association has awarded the entire Crocs Rx™ line its Seal of Acceptance based on a myriad of podiatric standards. (click here for original article)

[Source: Yahoo! Finance: Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry News ] Coach Inc. plans to add 285,000 square feet to its global distribution and customer service center near Jacksonville International Airport. (click here for original article)

[Source: Footwear News ]Man Charged With Trade Theft of Nike By WILLIAM McCALL : Associated Press Writer Nov 10, 2007 : 1:49 am ET A man who said he found advance copies of a Nike Inc. (click here for original article)