STORES Top 100 US retailers report for 2008 reveals some of the changing trends in retail. The list is based on sales volume and includes all types of retailers. As usual, Wal-mart tops the list with the most sales, with $378,799,000 in 2007 revenues. Following this retail giant are Home Depot at number two, CVS Caremark at number three, and Kroger taking number four.

Overall, pharmacies, including Rite Aid and Walgreen are moving up the rankings. We have certainly seen an evolution of pharmacies in the past few decades, and they are continuing to change and offer new goods and services to respond to demand. The chart says that Walgreen has launched a casual clothing collection, and is opening in-store clinics. Pharmacies are bringing in more revenue and opening new stores, despite the economic slump.

Retailers like Dell, Apple Stores/iTunes, AT&T, and Verizon are represented for the first time in this ranking. This certainly reflects the market shifts that are presently taking place and will continue.

You can take a look at the entire ranking here.

We have posted a chart with the top search terms before, but here you can find an updated version from data provided by Hitwise with data through May 2008. It’s worth taking a look at, because it can give you some idea of how the average person uses a search engine, and what terms are searched for most often. It can also give you an idea of what search terms people might use that would lead to your website.

Another resource you can use to find out what keywords are most popular and most widely used that are related to your website is a Search Term Suggestion Tool. With a tool like this, you can enter in a general keyword, and it will suggest other search terms related to that one, and give you the popularity of each.

It’s a good idea to be aware of how most people use search engines in order to see how customers may find your retail site in the vast world wide web.

eMarketer.com recently reported that retail shoppers are checking out stores’ websites first before deciding where to spend their money, even if they plan on going to the brick-and-mortar store. Competition tightens because it is now so easy for consumers to compare prices offered by different retailers.

With so much information available now on the internet revealing prices offered by different stores, there is limited information bias, and retailers have to offer competitive prices in order to survive. This is especially relevant for retailers that sell goods that are exactly identical to those sold by other stores, such as electronics.

According to a May 2008 Nielsen Online survey, even most of those who end up buying in a brick-and-mortar store check the web first. They found that eight out of ten consumers in the survey that had recently purchased electronics in a physical store had checked the retailer’s website beforehand. Consumers don’t need to drive around town to find out price differences. It seems that even if they are planning to stop by their local store, they check the website first to see what’s available, so they don’t waste a trip. With children now growing up surfing the web, we can expect to see this trend increase, and for shoppers to be more and more informed about competitors’ prices.

For a retail marketing blog to be successful, you have to keep up with updates. If you are posting something everyday, your blog will get picked up by the major search engines and gain your website better placement on the SERP and more traffic.

If you find it difficult to sit down and write a post everyday, take advantage of changing the post timestamp and setting posts to publish in the future. This way, you can write several posts at once, and then set some of them to post in the future, basically having your blog publish itself with a new post each day. If you are using Wordpress software for your blog, just change the timestamp to the future (say, tomorrow), and then click “Publish.”

Thanks to this handy little feature, you can publish new, unique content everyday and not actually have to keep up with your blog each day. Just don’t forget to come back and write some more!

RSS feeds have become immensely popular, and now you will see the RSS icon on most blogs so that their readers can stay up-to-date. Does your blog allow readers to subscribe to an RSS feed?

Readers can subscribe to your RSS feed and be notified of new updates to your blog or website. Many people who have a number of sites they like to keep up with find RSS feeds handy, because they can see the latest updates from these sites in a feed reader without having to visit each individual site to check. They also make it easy for readers to see your latest post quickly.

If you want your website to get noticed and you want to attract loyal readers, you need to make sure you have an RSS feed enabled. This site has a lot of information on how to set up an RSS feed.

It seems like more and more, people are finding ways of avoiding advertisements. Tivo and DVR allow TV watchers to fast-forward though commercials. Satellite radio provides commercial-free broadcasting. Pop-up blockers and ad-blocking software stop internet browsers from displaying internet ads.

In this age where consumers are able to dodge ads thrown at them left and right, retail blog marketing is an increasingly lucrative way of boosting sales. Retail blog marketing steps up search engine visibility results and adds quality traffic to your site. And, a better position on Google and other search engines is not seen as an advertisement by consumers, but as a mark of a company’s quality and reliability.

Marketing methods are evolving as quickly as ever with the rapid pace of the internet. As more and more traditional forms of advertisement can be avoided by consumers, other, newer forms of marketing will take their places. I know that I, personally, am much more likely to click on a natural link in a search result than a banner ad or other conspicuous advertisement. It will be interesting to see how these trends develop in the coming years, and how they affect retailers and their marketing choices.

In a recent post, I predicted an increase in online shopping because of increased gas prices. I found an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal that showed that shopping centers are having difficulty leasing storefronts.

Lifestyle centers, a trend in shopping centers that has flourished during the past decade, are becoming less and less successful, according to the Wall Street Journal. These shopping centers contain a mixture of retail stores, fountains, and cafes in an open-air format. You have probably noticed that construction of enclosed malls dwindled in recent years, as this type of shopping center became more popular. But, owners of these lifestyle centers are finding it hard to fill storefronts and attract customers.

This is further support for the idea that online shopping will increase. This could help retailers, as a way to supplement lack of growth into new stores. While leasing a storefront is costly, maintaining a website is fairly inexpensive.

However, I’m sure investors who are having trouble leasing storefronts in their newly-built lifestyle centers aren’t too happy about the website alternative.

As gas prices continue to climb, we should expect to see an increase in online shopping. Especially for retail stores situated in less-than-ideal locations to which consumers would be less likely to drive, revenue from online sales could help ease the stress of a recession.

Also, shops that appeal to a specific niche can benefit from a much larger group of consumers by reaching the entire country with a good website.

However, even if someone who wants what you’re selling manages to find your website, they will quickly navigate away if you make one of these mistakes:

1. Your website is badly organized, and the consumer can’t find what he’s looking for quickly.
Take cues from the big guys on this one Walmart.com and other huge retailers have categories with drop-down menus, a search bar, and special offers or best sellers to click on on their home pages. It is best to have multiple ways that the consumer can locate what he wants to find.

2. Your website is unattractive or unappealing. If your website looks cluttered, outdated, or just plain ugly, most consumers won’t even give it a chance. A website like this makes consumers question the reliability and quality of the company. Make sure your website looks professional, clean, and modern.

If you want your retail website to take off, you not only need a good position on search engines, but also a good-looking website that will hold the consumer’s attention once they click on your link.

In an article on SiteProNews recently, they discussed 8 reasons why you need audio on your website.

Audio can be the difference between making 1 sale or 10, and it does add a ‘wow’ factor, for your customers.
I agree with all of their 8 points whole heartedly.
As a consumer, if I can listen to a retailer describe the benefits of their product to me instead of just reading a lengthy list of pros’, it has helped me make my decision to purchase or not.
Here’s a few of those 8 things that I feel are the most important, but make sure you read them all after you finish reading what I have to say.

1. Customers remember what they hear more than what they read. Did you know that people remember only 20% of what they read while they remember an astonishing 70% of what they hear? That’s three and a half times more! Your audio message will help you to stick into the minds of your customers longer.

3. Audio keeps customers on your site longer. Audio can keep customers on your site longer and you give you more time to make the sale. It can be used as an additional resource or tool for customers to familiarize themselves with your product or service while browsing your site.

6. Audio puts you light years ahead of your competitors. Using audio successfully on your site gives you a competitive advantage. Most internet businesses overlook using this effective marketing tool so be sure you’re not one of them!

7. Audio is easy to use. Being able to put audio on your website isn’t limited to just techies - anyone can do it! Many of the programs available don’t even require you to know HTML or flash. They’re designed to be user friendly so you shouldn’t have any problems taking your website to the next level.

See there in reason #6, where I italicized part of it?
I wanna tell you how to use it successfully, from a customers point of view.
This is so important.

Do NOT set your audio sales pitch to auto play.
Ever.
Do place your audio or video player above the fold, so customers can find it easily, but never set it to auto play.

Auto playing audio or video players are an immediate sales closer, meaning the customers leave the site without you closing the sale.
If you have your audio or video player above the fold, right near the top, and tell your customers in a short paragraph, that they can watch or hear more about your product by clicking play on the player, most customers will choose to watch or listen.

If it auto starts and the customers can’t find the player because it’s at the bottom of the page, or not even visible to customers to turn it off, customers end up leaving the site without listening or watching, and without reading anything on your site, and without making a purchase.

Give your customers the option of watching or listening to more information about your product, and they will.
Force it on them, and they will leave your site, with their money still in their wallets.

Once again, SiteProNews comes through for us on how to get the top search engine rankings on Google.
The old tricks of keyword spamming and invisible key phrases, no longer work, but here are 3 tips that work like a charm.

Content and links are 90% of how to get placed at the top for searches.
Having your keywords in your meta tags is no longer the best way, it’s all about great content, and using the key phrases your readers would use.

Step 1. Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in the phrases that you think your target customers would use. It will give you the data on that keyword, and also provide you with additional keywords to consider.
Those are the ones you’ve probably over looked and in some cases, never even thought of, but when people use a search engine, they don’t always use the same words or phrases you are thinking are the best keywords for your site or product.
Try as many specific keywords and phrases as you can think of, and keep looking at the additional keywords to consider. You’ll be surprised at how many words you never thought of.

Step 2. Content, content, content.
It’s been said many times, content is king, and when you’re trying to gain a larger audience, great content will bring them in and keep them.
Make it search engine friendly and real-person natural content. Let it flow as naturally as possible.
Most search engines can tell the difference between content aimed at people or aimed at search engines. Make the most of your content.
In your first sentence, your number one keyword should be placed. Place your number 2 keyword at the top of that first paragraph as well.
Repeat this using one keyword for every paragraph you write.
For your last paragraph, use the least used keyword first, and end the last paragraph with the most important keyword, your number 1 keyword.
Try not to repeat your keywords more than 3-4 times per content article.

Step 3. Get great inbound links and monitor your site.
Having quality inbound links can account for 75% of search engine hits.
Then you need to monitor your site to see where you are in the search engines, and where you will be for those keywords.
Investing in a good SEO tool will pay for itself over time because it will do all the monitoring for you, saving your hours upon hours every week.