Rewards points scheme for smaller shops

Scotland's independent shops are fighting back against the invasion of chain stores and the march of online retailers by launching their own customer loyalty scheme. Over 400 retailers have signed up to Clickypoints, giving them access to mobile marketing and online sales, and will go live early next month with hopes of spreading throughout the UK within two years.

At £1 per point, Clickypoints eliminates the uncertainties associated with traditional schemes, and being redeemable at any member branch allows shoppers to optimise their ‘personal’ value…..

However, in terms of potential spread of usage, the real driver is the fact that offering pound-for-pound points instead of price reductions, not only can the retailer sell at full price and maintain brand equity, they can use what would have been spent on advertising to fund the deals…

Surely a way of combining the interests of shopper and supplier in helping to build a healthy independent sector, everywhere?

'Making do' in austere times?

    'Making-do' in austere times?

For the buyer who has had everything: the world’s oldest Courvoisier vintage

pic: Talking Retail

According to Talking Retail, the world’s oldest known Courvoisier vintage, Courvoisier & Curlier 1789 is now available in the Harrods Wine Shop, from 5 – 8th December. The historic cognac, a snip at £95,000, dates back to the French Revolution, and was bottled over 200 years ago by the Curlier brothers, nephews of Felix Courvoisier.

For those whose buyer has been less accommodating in 2012, four lesser vintages are available priced between £9,500 and £38,500 a bottle.

Livestream today 
If you cannot get to Harrods today, a livestream tasting is available at 12 noon GMT London time / 13:00 CET Paris time, where not only will you get the chance to glimpse the Courvoisier & Curlier 1789 Cognac, but you can also see Master Blender, Patrice Pinet, host a tasting of Courvoisier’s premium Cognac Succession J.S and a chance to send in your inevitable questions to him direct…..
Who knows, you may even see your rival NAM in the background, executing the ultimate in buyer appreciation…

Seriously, what should be your buyer-gifting policy in these austere times? -  too little says too much, too much says too little….

Anyway, why not have a really vintage weekend, from the Namnews Team!

Tesco Q3 - the update options for suppliers?

Given the positive market reaction to a review and probable sale of its Fresh and Easy operation, the resulting focus on core domestic market dominance and business development of overseas markets has to represent a short-term breathing space for Tesco.

The company now has an opportunity to intensify its £1bn regeneration project, perhaps switching the emphasis to food, as the world wakes up to the fact that austerity-driven consumers ‘making do’ have taken real demand from the replacement and new product market in non-foods….

Financial emphasis
Given the city’s focus on financial performance, then Tesco will need to demonstrate its new direction by squeezing costs and driving sales, whilst becoming potentially even more appreciative of the financial value of brands.

Suppliers in turn need to be able to calculate and demonstrate the impact on the Tesco P&L of margin, credit, settlement discount, ATL, trade funding, GMROII and even deductions…
An opportunity for financially articulate NAMs to sound like Tesco think?

A virtual US presence?
Meanwhile, a 100% withdrawal from the US probably means that despite an otherwise global success, Tesco will find it impossible to re-enter the US in the next 10 years. However, leaving aside a traditional 20th century bricks & mortar approach, Tesco could demonstrate its 21st century vision by building and maintaining a virtual presence in the US via:

• Private label via an agency network to build brand awareness
• Online: as a leading online player Tesco could use a combination of local partners in appropriate categories

Both are relatively low-cost, low-risk options especially for a company with an established presence and highly relevant experience elsewhere…

An opportunity for suppliers in relevant categories?

A bogof for B&M Bargains?

Having sold a significant share of the business for a 10x multiple that values B&M Bargains at around £965m, the Arora brothers have secured two major assets:
- A source of funding to realise its UK and overseas potential
- A visionary who saw the global potential when Tesco was tip-toeing into France

Arora bought B&M at the start of the global downturn in 2005 when it was loss-making and had fewer than 20 stores. However, the retailer has been transformed since then. It now has more than 300 stores, 10,000 employees, annual sales of £1bn, and is perfectly positioned to thrive in the global ‘post-recession’ flatline environment…

For NAMs wanting to scope out the company’s full potential, now rather than when everyone can exercise hindsight, think:
- Tesco with no baggage in the era of pile-it-high, sell-it-cheap
- Tesco freed from City restraints, at least for five years…
- A fully focused family with everything to gain
- A well-connected chairman with nothing to lose
- A stripped-down fully transparent discount offer
- A global environment crying out for same…

Mega-Monday - a vision of the future?

The first Monday in December comes shortly after payday for many consumers and in recent years has consistently been the busiest day for online retailers. Today Visa predicts that online shopping will be up 21 per cent on the equivalent day last year, making it the biggest online shopping day ever in the UK, a sentiment echoed by online retailers throughout the UK.

However, what if every Monday was Mega-Monday, on the way to 24/7?

In other words, why not multiply your online sales today by 365 and consider the resulting vision of the online future....? Moreover, in an essentially zero-sum game this online growth has to be at the expense of traditional retail...

Assume also that as consumers we respond positively to the Amazonian experts as they raise our 'norm-bar' for online access and service level, making non 1-click secondary players seem clunky by comparison...

Accepting the above, what can you do omnichannelwise to realise your fair share of the 24/7 dream?

Alternatively, why not ignore the signs and be surprised by the Mega-nightmare...? 

Supermarkets agreement to prices and discounts code – a brand responsibility?

By the time legislation catches up with a problem, the damage has already been done. Thus, having made significant progress in building consumer trust in private label and store ‘brand’, retailers forget that branding is really a guarantee that every time the tin is opened, its contents are the same or better than the consumer’s previous experience.

Having come so far, retailers have progressively undermined that trust by manipulation of prices and discounts to the disadvantage of the regular shopper – ‘secure’ in the knowledge that they have adhered to the letter rather than the spirit of the law…

It will be a pity if the new code is allowed to simply become a more demanding set of parameters for further manipulation.

Hopefully, good retailers will see a major opportunity for real differentiation – scope to become the champion of the people by representing transparent value via clear pricing and easy comparison, while competitors allow shoppers’ creeping suspicion to dilute their hard-won brand equity…

However, the real issue for brand owners has to be the realisation that it is their responsibility, rather than that of the retailer, to be the custodian of brand equity at point of purchase.

Brand owners are busy applying all the principles of shopper marketing in the aisle at incremental expense. A pity to allow all gains to be sacrificed at the checkout.

It is vital to ensure that a link is maintained with brand consumers in order that perceived value is exceeded by actual performance by helping shoppers to count and appreciate real value

Making the numbers add up would help…

Top five scams impacting online xmas shoppers

According to an online shopping survey of 1,005 people commissioned by software security vendor, Kaspersky Lab, 76 per cent of participants will be purchasing Christmas gifts online this year, and each of these is potentially vulnerable to credit card theft and other scams during the holiday season.

Top five holiday scams:

1. Christmas eCards: links to eCards may contain malware
2. Parcel delivery notifications: fake delivery notification emails may infect computers
3. Fake order confirmations: fake order confirmation emails causing shoppers to think someone ordered a product under their name
4. Holiday screen savers: Holiday-themed screen saver downloads can contain malware
5. Social media malware: include fake Facebook Christmas competitions, video links with malware, and Twitter viruses

Some tips available here

Managing online trust
Give the fragility of many shoppers confidence in online purchasing, it is vital that suppliers and retailers build consumer education and xx into their online communication. The Catch 22 is that such education needs pitching in ways that reassure rather than further de-stabilise nervous shoppers.

However, the real solution has to be strong online branding.
If in any doubt, think what Amazon has achieved by distilling all consumer reluctance into          1-Click shopping…