The Cultural Traveler Deadline Extended to Sept. 18, 2009!
from MSA
It's not too late to book your space in the 2010 issue of The Cultural Traveler. Due to many requests, the reservation deadline has been extended to Sept. 18, 2009. If you want to build attendance and increase retail sales, don't let the opportunity to participate in The Cultural Traveler pass you by. More    

Two New Positions Posted to MSA's Job Source
from MSA
Two new positions have been posted to Job Source, MSA's online resource for the most up-to-date job listings in the cultural commerce industry. More    

MSA Midwest Chapter Meeting Minutes Posted
from MSA
Minutes from the August meeting of MSA's Midwest Chapter have been posted to MuseumStoreAssociation.org. More    

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Holiday

Saving, Not Spending, This Holiday Season
from eMarketer
Recession-conscious consumers are looking to spend less and save more this holiday season. About one-half of US adults (54%) said they planned to spend at least $300 on holiday gift-giving this year. In November 2008, 60% of respondents reported their typical holiday spending was in that range. More    

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Just a Quarter of Women Say Social Media Influences Purchases
from ClickZ
One quarter of women say they are influenced by social media when it comes to making purchases. A new study from Q Interactive shows that, even though 75 percent of women are more active at social media sites now than a year before, only 25 percent of the participants said the sites influenced them "greatly" or "somewhat" when it came to purchasing. More    

Report: Shoppers Still Hesitant to Buy Via Mobile Devices
from Mediaweek
Mobile Web usage is spiking, as more and more Americans adopt smartphones like Blackberrys and the iPhone. And retailers are starting to produce no-paper mobile coupons. But mobile e-commerce remains nascent, as both businesses and consumers have demonstrated a hesitancy to adopt the medium as a shopping vehicle, according to a new report issued by eMarketer. More    

Psychology in the Battle for Retail Customers
from Inside Retailing
In just a few decades, the retail sector has changed out of all recognition. Driven by fierce competition it has found itself at the forefront of new marketing concepts such as brand management and customer loyalty. Now, in a period of economic uncertainty, retailers are adopting another weapon -- the manipulation of customer minds. More    

Affluent Consumers Clip Coupons. Poor People? Not So Much
from Time Magazine
Some 1.6 billion coupons were redeemed in the U.S. in the first half of 2009. That's up 23 percent compared to last year. Who is turning all those coupons in to save on purchases? Odds are it's a suburbanite who is fairly well off. More     

Product Showcase: ChemArt Our artisans have perfected the making of an ornament. Like the White House Historical Association, many museums and historic organizations work with ChemArt to create a unique ornament to sell, to use to raise funds, as a thank you or to commemorate a special event. Let us help you today. More info

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Baby Boom Travelers Dubbed the "Greycationers" are Helping British Tourism Boom
from MailOnline
Forget 'staycationers', it is 'greycationers' who could hold the key to helping the domestic tourism market through the recession. The 50-plus, baby-boom generation are shunning the boring OAP image to head off on adventurous holidays. They could even be behind the latest figures showing that domestic and short-haul travel in Europe has held up much better than long-haul so far this year. More    

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Increase Sales and Customer Satisfaction With an Organized Retail Space
from OneCoast
Create a more positive customer experience and sell more to existing customers! Customers make over 50% of their buying decisions in your store; therefore, an organized retail space plays a critical role in finalizing sales and driving revenues. So, where and how do you start? More     

Improve Sustainability By Streamlining Merchandising Processes
from Integrated Solutions for Retailers
The green revolution has taken hold of the retail industry at a rapid pace. Practically every retailer offers organic or green products to consumers, promotes the use of reusable shopping bags or employs energy saving practices in their store operations. But while the bulk of retailer efforts towards sustainability have focused on the store front, retailers can also take key steps to green their back end. In particular, retailers have a unique opportunity to help improve sustainability efforts throughout their merchandising and in-store marketing campaigns. More     

Don't Count on High Unemployment to Increase Employee Retention
from RTO Online
A new Harris survey released today shows that 66 percent of American workers are not currently satisfied with their compensation. Additionally, 78 percent are not satisfied with their company's overall retention efforts and 76 percent are not satisfied about future career growth opportunities at their company -- none of which bodes well for good employee retention numbers. More    

10 Team Building Strategies of the 2009 Top Small Workplaces Finalists
from Winning Workplaces
This spring Winning Workplaces staff selected 35 Finalist organizations from the over 300 that applied for Top Small Workplaces 2009, an annual recognition project co-sponsored with The Wall Street Journal. Find out what the 35 Finalists are doing when it comes to building teams in the workplace and making them highly productive. More    

Keeping Your Site Out of Hackers' Clutches
from The Wall Street Journal
A growing number of small companies are falling prey to hackers. Attackers are increasingly infiltrating small businesses' Web sites and using them to quietly drop malicious programs, typically designed to steal personal financial information, onto the computers of visitors, security experts say. Some are also digging around in databases for valuable information or trying to capture e-commerce customers' credit card numbers. More    

Shore up Your Site Search
from MultiChannel Merchant
Imagine a shopper walking into a men's apparel store looking for a black suit. Then imagine a clerk telling him the shop doesn't carry black suits and growing silent even though the store does carry black suits. They're simply referred to as "charcoal" in this particular store. Scenarios like this are apparently playing out on merchants' Web sites across the Internet. More    

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In Retail Sales, an Uplifting Drop
from The Washington Post
Retailers pulled off the best monthly sales results in nearly a year in August, the peak of the back-to-school shopping season, giving the industry a glimmer of hope for a happier holiday season. More    

The Online Retailers Shoppers Like Most
from NRF Stores
Amazon.com tops the annual STORES Favorite 50 online retailers list, followed closely by Wal-Mart, eBay, Best Buy and J.C. Penney Company. If the top five seem oddly familiar, you're right; they're the same merchants that ranked highest on this exclusive list a year ago. But the real news in STORES' third annual ranking of consumers' favorite online retailers isn't necessarily about the list's leaders: it's about a palpable shift in the mindset of shoppers. Loyalty is taking a back seat to price, and shoppers are becoming agnostic about retail channels. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the first-time entry of Craigslist.org. More    

Retailers Continue Defensive Inventory Strategy
from Chicago Tribune
With the memory of last holiday season's frantic price slashing fresh in their minds, retailers are going out of their way to make sure they don't get stuck with too many goods this year. The play-it-safe strategy is meant to protect stores from the steep markdowns that cut into profits and sent dozens of big name retail chains into bankruptcy after Christmas. But with consumer confidence inching up and economists predicting that the recession has ended, concern is building that this attitude could create new problems for the already beleaguered retail industry. More    

Retailers Take Receipts to Great Lengths
from The Wall Street Journal
Many shoppers have noticed with chagrin store receipts getting longer and longer as retailers tack coupons, return policies, loyalty points and other bits of information and advertising onto narrow pieces of paper that are supposed to be a record of what was bought and how much was paid. Erin Pensa, a spokeswoman for CVS Caremark Corp. in Woonsocket, R.I., acknowledges that customers have complained about long receipts, but she said they appreciate the coupons. More    

Hybrid Campaigns Blend Online, Traditional Marketing Methods
from the South Florida Business Journal
Both large and small firms have taken to hybrid marketing -- a blend of some traditional and heavy online and social media -- to promote themselves. More    

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In Hard Times, Museum Gets Creative
from the Morning Sentinel
The Colby College Museum of Art is prospering in the face of, and perhaps because of, the economic downturn. While many art museums around the country have closed or reported declines in donations and walk-ins, the Colby museum, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, has seen a steady climb in attendance. But attendance isn't rising everywhere. More    

Children's Museum Membership at Record Levels
from Inside Indiana Business
During tough economic times, there is good news at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Compared to this time last year, the museum's overall attendance is up 23%, membership is at an all-time high at 25% above plan, earned revenue is 8% higher, and sales in The Children's Museum Store were up 37% in July and are 8% higher overall for the year. More    

Art Is for Admiring but Not for Tasting
from The New York Times
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has a new piece of merchandise to offer in its gift shop -- not to mention an endearing anecdote -- after a young art fan's recent visit to the museum. More    

Zoo Consultant Exhibits Enthusiasm for Hotel Bid
from Columbus Business First
The Columbus Zoo & Aquarium could add a 175-room hotel and conference center in the next few years if it takes the advice of a consultant hired to assess the prospects for such a project. More    

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