ETD: 728 Higher Theft Losses From Shoplifters; e-Commerce
Powerhouse; Gift Industry in Decline; Harmonic Environments, Inc.; 10
Trends in 30 Minutes
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post@gapent.com
Thu, 09 Oct 2003 06:19:30 -0400
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0728 October 9, 2003
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem@gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Retailers Continue to Experience Higher Theft Losses From Shoplifters
[3] e-Commerce Powerhouse
[4] Report Says Gift Industry in Decline
[5] Harmonic Environments, Inc.
[6] 10 Trends in 30 Minutes
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
I'm back from my latest journeys - retreat in Connecticut and major
presentation in Atlanta. We will know by the end of the week whether or
not we got the job. Wish us luck.
I read some interesting print material on the plane. One article that
surprised me was who is the e-Commerce powerhouse guru? It really
surprised me, especially since I was involved in the original development
of their site.
As we all know, shrink (theft) is high in retailing. In giftware it can be
as high as 4% of sales. Over $4.7 billion was lost to shoplifting and
employee theft in just 25 U.S. retail companies in 2002, with only 2.43
percent of those losses resulting in a recovery. What's it like in your
store? What do you do to prevent theft?
Add to the theft issue the decline in the gift industry as reported by Pam
Danziger, and we may get to wonder why we do it? Then again, maybe the 10
Trends in 30 Minutes may help your business. How is your business doing?
Don't forget to tell us a little about your business. In addition to
letting us all know what you do, you will be listed for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?"
http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a form
there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed this
idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't know
anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem@gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Retailers Continue to Experience Higher Theft Losses From Shoplifters
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Over $4.7 billion was lost to shoplifting and employee theft in just 25
U.S. retail companies in 2002, with only 2.43 percent of those losses
resulting in a recovery, according to the 15th Annual Retail Theft Survey
conducted by Jack L. Hayes International, a leading loss prevention and
inventory shrinkage control consulting firm.
"The losses are staggering and continue to amaze us," said Mark R. Doyle,
Vice President at Hayes International. "Both the number of shoplifters
apprehended and the dollars recovered from those apprehensions increased
for the second year in a row. In addition, for the sixth consecutive year
the dollars recovered from shoplifters where no apprehension was made
increased significantly over the prior year."
Mr. Hayes added, "Shoplifting and employee theft are serious crimes which
continue to negatively impact the bottom-line profits of many retailers.
These crimes continue to hurt our economy, costing consumers higher prices
at the cash register, and causing a loss of jobs when retailers are forced
to close stores or even go out of business."
This highly anticipated annual survey reports on over half a million
apprehensions taking place in just 25 large retail companies representing
10,243 stores with combined 2002 annual sales in excess of $396 billion.
Some of the major results from this survey are:
Total shoplifter and dishonest employee apprehensions in 2002 increased
7.11% (562,022 vs 24,731), while total dollar recoveries exceeded $114.8
million, an increase of 7.50% over prior year.
Survey participants apprehended 505,010 shoplifters in 2002, which
reflects an 8.55% increase over their 2001 shoplifter apprehensions (465,253).
Dollars recovered from shoplifting apprehensions totaled $58,198,969 in
2002, an increase of 12.22% over 2001 recoveries ($51,859,300).
For the 6th consecutive year, the dollars recovered from shoplifters
where no apprehension was made increased substantially (29.82%) over the
prior year.
Dishonest employee apprehensions decreased 4.15% in 2002 (57,012 vs
59,478) and the dollars recovered from those apprehended employees
decreased 6.66% ($37,623,661 vs $40,307,964).
On a per-company basis, one in every 30 employees was apprehended for
theft from their employer (based on over 1.8 million employees).
For more survey results please visit Jack L. Hayes International's Theft
Surveys.
http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=0&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hayesinternational.com%2Fthft_srvys.html
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[3] e-Commerce Powerhouse
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Guess who's the number one e-commerce powerhouse? Amazon? Ebay? Yahoo?
Nope. It's Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp. Diller owns Home Shopping
Network (HSN), a cash cow His cash cow that churns out profits he can use
to throw his net ever wider on the Web (in a previous engagement, our
company developed the e-commerce site for HSN).
Business Week has Barry as the cover boy (October 13 issue).
Thanks to a two-year-long buying binge, IAC is becoming the world's largest
consumer e-commerce business. With an eclectic combination of businesses,
ranging from the online travel powerhouse Expedia to the Net dating service
Match.com, InterActiveCorp's revenues are on track to surge 34% this year,
to $6.2 billion -- which would make it bigger than e-commerce giants Yahoo!
(YHOO ), eBay (EBAY ) and Amazon.com. IAC's Expedia and Hotels.com are the
two most profitable online travel agencies. Ticketmaster gives him a
dominating 90% share of ticket sales for concerts and sporting events.
LendingTree Inc., an online mortgage-referral service, also provides an
entr้e into real estate.
And this relentless dealmaker, with $5 billion in cash, is still shopping.
On Sept. 21, he announced a deal to buy Hotwire.com, a Priceline.com Inc.
(PCLN ) rival, for $665 million, giving him 3 of the top 10 most-visited
travel sites. "I cannot imagine the year will end without our making an
acquisition or a series of acquisitions in the billion-or-so-dollar range,"
he says. He is eyeing acquisitions in travel, finance, and classified ads
-- and plans to push hard overseas. Ben Tompkins, an investment banker at
Broadview Associates, says one attractive target is job-hunting site
CareerBuilder.com.
Behind the wheeling and dealing is a shrewd strategy to make IAC into
something entirely new -- a powerful combination of businesses focusing
solely on e-commerce. For this, Diller is positioning himself as a new kind
of cyber-middleman. He starts by picking highly fragmented industries, such
as travel, personal finance, and local entertainment. His companies
intermediate between travelers and hotels, borrowers and banks, music
lovers and concert halls. Think eBay, not Amazon.com Inc. Diller does not
want to warehouse products like Amazon. Instead, he uses the immense power
of the Web to gather boatloads of customers and deliver them, en masse, to
sellers of products and services เ la eBay.
What makes Diller unique is his willingness to meld the ruthlessness of a
Hollywood mogul with the power of the Internet. While eBay Chief Executive
Margaret C. "Meg" Whitman strives to keep the online auction site's
community of buyers and sellers happy, Diller throws his weight around much
like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. -- squeezing suppliers so he can take a bigger
slice of the pie. He grabs extra profits by giving prime billing on his Web
sites to suppliers that offer him the fattest discounts, from flights to
concert tickets. "In every one of our businesses, we're playing a role in
defining the economic laws," he says.
Details at (may require subscription)...
http://www.businessweek.com/@@0XWQSWUQr8JwUBMA/premium/content/03_41/b3853001_mz001.htm
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[4] Report Says Gift Industry in Decline
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Stevens, PA Total sales in the gift and decorative accessories industry
for 2002 were $54.3 billion, a drop of 1 percent from $54.7 billion in
2001, according to a report from Unity Marketing. "The giftware market
peaked in 2000, but has been on a downward trajectory since," said Unity's
president, Pam Danziger. "The industry's biggest challenge is that many of
the products and the way it sells them, primarily through small specialty
gift stores, does not connect with consumers." According to Danziger,
shoppers want convenience and value pricing, which they find at discount
department stores such as Kohl's, Target, and Wal-Mart, rather than the
local Hallmark store. She also cites a consumer trend toward "uncluttered"
lives that dispense with purely decorative, non-utilitarian items.
Magazines such as Real Simple and television shows such as HGTV's Mission:
Organization and The Learning Channel's Clean Sweep reflect the movement
toward household organization. While shoppers are turning to new retail
venues, giftware companies remain dependent upon specialty gift stores for
about half of their total sales, although this is a shrinking channel of
distribution, Danziger added. According to the International Council of
Shopping Centers (ICSC), the number of gift and home furnishings stores
that closed in the first half of 2003 was significantly higher than the
number of stores that closed in 2002.
Quinn Halford, Editor In Chief
Matthew Kalash, Editor
Gifts & Dec Direct
www.giftsanddec.com
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[5] Harmonic Environments, Inc.
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Our moderator wrote...
> I visited your site and am very impressed. Folks, these are not desktop
waterfalls.
> Have your wall covered with a waterfall.
> Can you give us a ballpark price? Let's say I want that corner
waterfall displayed with
>the piano. How much?
All of our products can be customized, but the one you've selected would
cost about $25,000, including installation.
I talked with you a couple of years ago about moving to the islands and
since moved to Stuart, FL, on the Indian River. It's beautiful here and
time to take up boating.......
Prices are on an individual basis, depending upon size, design, and
materials, starting about $15,000 including installation for a stainless
steel waterfall.
Example: Condell: http://www.harmonicenvironments.com/portfolio.htm
They can be $20,000 to $100,000 (or more) for products in our Translucence
Series, which are designed to divide spaces, with water visible from two sides.
Example: http://www.harmonicenvironments.com/portfolio.htm
Click on first box on left in the third row - Blanchard
All are customized to the setting.....
Kind regards,
Steven
--
Harmonic Environments
the premier maker of indoor waterfalls
26 Simara Street Stuart, FL 34996 USA
772. 223.9011 p 772.463.6422 f
waterfall@harmonicenvironments.com
http://www.HarmonicEnvironments.com
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[6] 10 Trends in 30 Minutes
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New York--Could you summarize the nation's zeitgeist--and the likely effect
on shopping habits--in a half-hour? Marian Salzman, chief strategy officer
of Euro RSCG Worldwide, managed that feat during her luncheon presentation
Sept. 25 at the Shop.org Annual Summit.
Before detailing 10 trends that she said would change retailing, Salzman
summed up the philosophy of today's consumer by quoting a saying on a
T-shirt that she'd seen in London: "I ask only that you treat me like you
treat the Queen."
As for those 10 trends...
#1: The return of the '80s. Not only the fashions (big hair, asymmetrical
shirts, neon colors, Lacoste polo shirts) but also the conservative values
of the Reagan era.
#2: Rampant obesity. Salzman cited statistics that more than 60% of women
and teens in the U.S. wear plus-size apparel.
#3: The young are getting older faster, and the old are staying younger
longer. Even as adults are delaying marriage, parenthood, and retirement,
preteens are becoming sexually aware much earlier than in generations past.
A study that Salzman's company conducted earlier this year found that
children and their parents have overlapping tastes in music, TV, and other
interests. As a result, she said, target marketing based on age no longer
makes sense.
#4: Metrosexuality. "Metrosexuals" are heterosexual men who are "in touch
with their feminine side," as the saying goes: They are interested in
grooming, enjoy shopping, and keep in shape by practicing yoga.
#5: "Buzz marketing": Because consumers are overwhelmed with promotional
messages via so many media, advertising is losing its effectiveness. A more
effective, albeit trickier, marketing method is to almost invisibly create
favorable word of mouth--giving celebrities free apparel in order to make
the clothing brand appear trendy, for instance.
#6: A subtler type of "experience " retail: Instead of theme restaurants
and stores with flashy gimmicks, consumer prefer mass merchants that
creatively offer deals (such as Target) and local boutiques that give
shoppers a sense of exclusivity.
#7: Concerns about the nation's security and economy.
#8: Renewed focus on the home as a haven.
#9: Ethnic evolution and influence: The Hispanic population is growing four
times as quickly as the U.S. population at large, Salzman noted. And though
Americans "aren't interested in going to foreign places," she said, "we're
interested in bringing the culture home to us." Hence the popularity of
Asian-influenced design and ethnic cuisines.
#10: "I'm my own best brand": Customerization and personalization, Salzman
said, are more important than ever.
http://retailtrafficmag.com/ar/retail_trends_minutes/index.htm
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