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.

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.

One of the ways to drum up more business, is by way of your RSS feed.
You can add your affiliate links in the bottom, you can use partial feeds to make readers come to your blog so all links in the sidebar are seen, and you can use your affiliate links inside your posts to create extra sales.

Every time I watch a new movie, I link to it with an affiliate account inside one of my posts.
It sends readers to that affiliate link, and even if they don’t buy that DVD, they usually end up buying something else within a few hours, or even sometimes a full week later, depending on the affiliate cookie hold.

Using images inside your entries is a great way to hold your readers attention. A post with a picture tends to keep your readers on your blog longer than just text.
People like to look at things, especially items that you are reviewing, so they can really see it’s value.
The average consumer believes word of mouth marketing more than just the products description page telling you how great it is.
Real people doing honest reviews, makes people believe it more, and therefore, more willing to go out and buy the item themselves.

So if you are looking for a great way to boost affiliate sales, use pictures of the product you are reviewing, review it honestly, the good, the bad, and the downright awful.
People want to know it isn’t very good so they don’t waste money.
But if it’s great, talk up it’s awesome points, and watch those sales go up.

So when did everyone get their first email address? ‘95? ‘97? Then when did you finally feel comfortable buying something online, giving out your credit card information without fear of getting your life stolen from you? ‘98 maybe? Back then, could you imagine purchasing the majority of what you buy online instead of in stores? If it’s not your reality now, it’s pretty darn close. Now, I bet you have absolutely no problem letting amazon or ebay remember your cc numbers. Simply amazing what can happen in 10 years.

Well, online retail has officially been around for 13 or 14 years, according to shop.org. And it’s not going anywhere anytime soon (obviously). But what’s really interesting is that it’s showing absolutely no signs of saturation whatsoever. In fact, according to Forrester Research, online retail grew 25% last year, and it’s expected to grow 18% this year.

What’s even more interesting is that the study doesn’t take into account buying decisions that are made online but made in brick-and-mortar stores. Buyers are increasing looking to blogs and other social media outlets to help them make decisions. So online retail will officially grow 18% this year, but what percentage of buying decisions will be made online? With the increasing popularity of blogs and video, online retail growth might be more than they expect.

According to a survey done by Shop.org, 83% of online retailers plan to offer free shipping during the holiday season which is the most important factor to online shoppers. A couple of keynotes from the article:
:By the end of October, about 63% of online retailers will have started running holiday promotions

:About 12% of retailers will add early shopper discounts this year, with nearly 39% offering the enticements this year

:By October, about 34% of consumers will make a holiday purchase, with another 26% starting in early to mid-November

The article also states that 97% of online retailers will invest in marketing through search engines and comparison sites.

More….

I recently had a conversation with two programmers from Microsoft. We began discussing their search division and how far behind they were to rivals Google and Yahoo. Instead of playing catch up to Google and Yahoo’s search they should be focusing their efforts and leading the way in Blog Search.

With traditional media missing consumers entirely, more and more advertisers look online to distribute their content. Unfortunately, a big percentage of company’s out there still have the CMO in charge who still believes that consumers are sitting by the TV, and or radio eagerly awaiting advertisements. You can place Google in with traditionally media here since many search results on Google return garbage.

Consumers are beginning to take control and the blogosphere is allowing them to do so.

Today, consumers have the control over what information they decide to put in front of them. Google and Yahoo’s organic search results are continuing to become less relevant to consumers searches. Most Retail Searches on Google will yield results for companies like Bizrate.com, shopping.Yahoo.com, nextag.com etc. in it’s organic results. If consumers want to shop at those websites there they will. They don’t choose Google to find retail aggregators. Consumers have already begun to turn their backs on traditional search engines due to their lack of relevant results. If Microsoft is smart, they will see this to their advantage and beef up their Blog Search division.
Consumers have created their own information-gated community called the blogosphere. At the present time, there is an open market for a really good Blog Search Engine. One that will enable advertisers and consumers to reach each other without so many middle men taking advantage of both sides.

Instant update, instant viewing and Instant Retail Gratification all in one shot…. Retail RSS Marketing we always knew it would be big. Now its getting even bigger.
Just saw a blurb about Microsoft’s New Feed Reader Codename Microsoft Max…All I can think of is all retailer’s products that subscribers are interested in, being updated as soon as they are posted on a Retail Blog… sounds powerful…

I will be installing this later and will have more feed back on this product.

“Every one of Pontiac’s marketing dollars to introduce its sporty G5 coupe is being spent online”

Do you have a car dealership? Used Cars, New Cars, Buy Here Pay, Large and Small. The Time is now to jump into blog marketing. Pontiac apparently is begginning to understand the potential for an advertising campaign online with their campaign for the G5. As a car dealer you may not have the weight (money) to throw around but you do have everything you need to let us help you with an online blog marketing campaign.

As encouraging as it is to see Pontiac embracing online advertising I don’t have a problem throwing out that for a fraction of what they are spending we could run a much more effective retail blog marketing campaign.

Think you can’t compete with the big companies? Think again.

Big Corporate Companies are Investing in Retail Blog Marketing.

• Paramount
• Johnson and Johnson
• Washington Post
• AOL Time Warner

I am sure there are more, these are just a few of the companies I remembered that recently invested in blog marketing. Small and Medium size businesses this is your opportunity to get a piece of the online sales pie that many larger companies are only just beginning to notice. Some larger companies are “testing” and “evaluating” … that is fine for them, they will come around to realize how effective blog marketing can be but if you are a small business more than likely you can make the decision without the red tape and hurdles that a larger company might have to go through.

That is an advantage you can use right now to start a retail blog marketing campaign. Get started early while the larger companies are “testing” and evaluating” . The Return is High and getting started early establishes your company in the blogosphere well ahead of any elephants in your industry.