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Retail Paradox Weekly
Retail News Analysis by RSR Research
June 30, 2009
Internet Sales Tax: If It Were Up To You
By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
6/30/2009
Last week’s Retail Paradox Weekly posed the question, “Is it time to tax internet sales?” The reason for the question was because of an editorial piece in the 6/7/09 San Francisco Chronicle that opined it is high time for California to end “state-sanctioned tax avoidance.” With internet sales approaching 4% of total retail sales in the U.S., the e-channel is no longer just a technical curiosity - it is now a fact of retail life.
As we noted last week... More
Organized Crime in Retail: Tracking Down a Consistent Definition
By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
6/30/2009
Numerous groups (including RSR) research and report on the state of Loss Prevention in Retail world-wide. It appears we all agree that the top two sources of shrink are employee theft of merchandise and cash and consumer theft of merchandise. We have all also found the volume of administrative errors (missed markdowns, incorrect purchase order or receipt information) remains surprisingly high. But where we start to diverge is in the area known as “Organized Retail Crime (ORC).” After a fair amount of investigation and conversation, we think we’ve come to understand where the problem lies. It’s one of definition and we think it’s very important that we clarify this definition for our retail readers.
Our survey respondents generally seem to think ORC is... More
Getting Shoppers Shopping: Early Findings from our Customer Relationship Managment Survey
By Steve Rowen, Managing Partner
6/30/2009
We’d like your insight. The average customer is less inclined to spend right now than she was just 12 months ago. However, the tough economy has accelerated retailers’ need to better understand their customers and design offers that actually do get them out shopping – and buying. On the one hand, this isn’t new. Just last year, our Next Generation of Retail CRM report showed customer programs and customer relationship management still receive retailers’ the highest priority internally, but between scattered customer data, the driving need for better customer insights - achieved faster - and challenges around implementing promotion optimization, getting to the "right offer at the right time to the right person" isn't as easy as it should be.
This year, we want to know how... More
RPW will be absent next week in observation of Independence Day. We will return on July 14th.
Happy 4th of July to All of Our US Readers!
Copyright © 2009 RSR Research LLC. RSR is a tradename of Retail Systems Research LLC. All Rights Reserved
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