Costco

Retailers are pulling out all the stops to eliminate waste and reduce costs. Major catalog marketers nationwide have hopped on the “tighten your belt” trend, with an increased demand for smaller, letter-rate catalogs. Dropping millions of large catalogs to underperforming mailing lists is passé, while green design and consumer perceptions are hot, and postage is at an all-time high. 

What are the best practices for generating sales using Twitter? Sometimes we need to frame questions a different way. Maybe the question needs to be, “Is Twitter a viable way for brands to generate sales?”

For most multichannel retailers, developing marketing plans and budgets for 2010 is a daunting task. After two years of tough economic climates that meant sales reductions and downsizing for many, now’s the time to build a plan for another — perhaps better, yet uncertain — year.

The fate of Wal-Mart, Target and other big retailers often represents a benchmark for how smaller multichannel marketers will perform, sales-wise. But if their sales performance in April was any indication, then it’s not a good time right now for anyone. Below are highlights of several key big retailers’ April sales totals. * Overall, the UBS-International Council of Shopping Centers’ sales totals of 53 retailers showed a 2.4 percent decrease, the largest decline since 1970 * Wal-Mart’s same-store sales fell 3.5 percent * Target Corp.’s same-store sales decreased by 6.1 percent * Federated Department Stores’ (Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s) same-store sales dropped 2.2 percent * Gap Inc.’s same-store sales sunk by

When cutting tools manufacturer Kennametal Inc. sold off its J&L Industrial Supply catalog division to maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) supplies cataloger MSC Industrial Direct Co. in a deal that closed June 8 for a cool $349.5 million, the seller said it would recognize an estimated $215 million to $225 million pre-tax gain in its fourth fiscal quarter ended June 30. These are striking figures, considering that as recently as five years ago, most people — both within Kennametal and on the outside — would've laughed at the idea that J&L could

Missing Person Description: high-quality multichannel buyer Last Seen: purchasing online 18 months ago The Details: A customer placed an online order for top-quality merchandise 18 months ago. Delivery confirmation was received three days later. Your repeated attempts to contact the customer via direct mail and e-mail have been met with no response. This customer is extremely valuable, with a high lifetime value and history of repeat purchases. Please forward any information as soon as possible. Do you know which customers are missing in action? Somewhere deep in your housefile are people who no longer shop from you. For some, service and quality issues alienated