Very very interesting article in The New York Times about how big box stores may be open to some haggling over prices of high ticket merchandise.

In the old days of retail you would go to a big box store to get the best price. The haggling was left for independent stores... the old "if I take this refrigerator, stove and washer & dryer can you do better on the price?" sort of thing.It was one of our little competitive secrets.

So now big box stores are going to give their employees latitude to negotiate price with customers. I'll be interested to see how stores will empower $8/hour employees to negotiate $100s of dollars of potential profit for the store. If you're a retailer who plans to do this, I hope you have a great relationship with your employees and very strict procedure to follow. Otherwise, a lot of dollars are going to go out the door.

Maybe that is ok if you are going to do volume sales as these large stores do. But is this a slippery slope?

The article was very good about pointing out how savvy customers are getting- how informed they are about prices and products. The uber-hagglers are doing research online then haggling prices at one retailer, then leveraging that price with another. Three retailers later, the consumer gets the rock-bottom price.

Ouch. Now the chain retailers will get a sense of what independents have endured for years. The old- I'll take you up on the training and information and then buy the product at a discount elsewhere- thing.

Many large retailers have been giving their employees the option to negotiate price for years, it just wasn't widely known. Ever buy a bed? That's where I learned that I don't have the energy or TIME for haggling. Three hours later I got the bed for half the ticketed price (as a favor to me of course- the ONE time the sales associate could do that this month). However, my whole Saturday was shot.

Consumers are already wary about what products really cost. There is a sense that big box stores mark stuff up tremendously in order to draw customers in with a 40% markdown.

Consumers have a pre-conceived idea of what things are worth. Right or wrong, they bring that with them when they shop your store. A successful salesperson will make the sale if they prove the value of that item beyond those preconceptions. Why is this product worth $20? Your answer: It will save you time, make the crafting process easier, it's fun to use, it's the hottest thing with designers, etc etc. It's not really about the quality of the item but the intangibles- the stuff you can't really put a price on.

A customer can pay a few dollars less at another store but at almost $4 a gallon for gas is it worth a second trip? Here's where you have the in. Rather than haggle on price, what added value can you offer that doesn't cost you a lot? This could be a training session, a discounted crop ticket, a few extra sheets of paper, a free refill, etc.

For me haggling is a hassle I prefer not to endure. For the high ticket items?Yes I will do the homework on televisions, appliances and furniture but for a $40 craft item. Just tell me what it can do for me and ring me up!--Beth

There was a short but interesting item regarding Joanns.com in Internet Retailer.

It said that online sales only account for 2% of the store's product sales. I would have expected that to be higher. The company says that Web sales are not expected to match the margin on in-store sales.

I remember the days when Idea Forest (the creator of the JoAnn's site) and a handful of other online craft mega retail sites were going to put every independent retailer out of business. During the dot.com boom there was an awful lot of trash talking about how e-commerce would take over craft retail. You know, I don't see alot of those folks at shows any more.

The good news is that for the most part, the best online retailers co-exist with independent stores. I don't hear that same bluster about causing the demise of brick and mortar stores. Online retailers need traditional stores.

Certainly online retail poses competition to brick and mortar store. But it is one of many competitors. The key is to put that competition in perspective. People shop online for convenience. My belief is that crafters enjoy shopping in stores for inspiration and turn to online retailers to buy products they can't find in local stores.  They may also go online to get discounts. But when you factor in shipping costs, the discounts are diminished.

Short of staying open 24/7, it's near impossible for  brick and mortar stores to compete with an online retailer in terms of convenience. You'll never be able to carry every sku of every line out there.

The answer is don't try to compete on something that is impossible. (That's the advice speakers always say about competing with Wal-Mart on price.) Compete on something you can do that e-retailers can't:

• You can demonstrate a tool and show many ways to use it.
• You can upsell other items that work well with a product. Websites don't "think" in the same way.
• You can conduct classes and clubs that engage consumers and provide entertainment.
• You can be the one to give a customer a hug when she tells you she is making a memorial scrapbook for a friend or family member.

There are all kinds of things a brick and mortar retailer can do because you get valuable "face time" with the consumer. So the next time you get into a worry cycle about how to compete with (fill in the competitor's name here) focus instead on things you CAN do. It will put you on the track of solutions and that is a much more productive use of your time!-- Beth

Michael's is cutting back on classes in its 900+ stores. The surviving classes will be the Wilton (cake and candy decorating) classes.  This is one of those bad news good news stories depending on what side of the distribution channel you are on.

The thing that separates crafts from other hobbies is that we don't have a good education structure set up outside our stores. Children learn sports and can take music lessons in school. They can participate in theatre and choir and auto or wood shop in school. But crafts, outside the minimal introduction to paint, crayons and sculpture in art classes are mostly taught by family members and occasionally a scout group leader.

Simply put, we (meaning members of the industry) have to teach people to craft.

That is why store-sponsored education is so vital to the health and future growth of our industry.

Now, in a chain store's case, managing in-store education is a nightmare, their business depends on things that can be scaled. Unfortunately, you can't scale great people to teach classes. Each store location will have different  ternds and product category strengths. Wilton will continue at Michaels because they have one of the best systems for getting well-trained teachers in store. It probably doesn't require a lot of coordination on the store's part.

So the good news. Independent retailers- here's where you can compete with Chains- through education.

Classes and Clubs... the most successful stores all have them.

Build your classes correctly and you will generate revenue from the class and the product sales. You'll probably need to bring in some outside teachers, invest in some promotion and some class space if you don't have a place in your store.

But just as you invest in advertising, fixuring and product- this is an investment in future profit. Classes and clubs generate store traffic and bring in new customers. They teach customers how to use tools and products. They bond customers to your store.

It's tough to compete against that  weekly 40% off coupon but there are so many products YOU can sell that chains never will. Those are the products you can build classes and clubs around. There's no need to train consumers how to use a tool that they will leave your class and buy elsewhere at a deep discount. But if they do buy it elsewhere you can still generate revenue from teaching the customer how to use a product they bought at a Chain store.

We hope to be presenting a clubs and classes seminar at CHA Summer. In the meantime, classes and clubs are a priority in our magazine content. We welcome your comments and contributions to this topic.

Wishing you a happy first day of spring and for those of you who celebrate it- a joyous Easter. See you Monday-- Beth

I was a frustrated photo consumer yesterday.

I endeavored to take the cute picture of my son (riding the Easter hayride to the easter egg field with Mr. E. Bunny)to create a photo card for all the long distance friends and relatives.

I went to four photo outlets. Apparently I am the only person who wants to send Easter/Spring greetings in the form of photo cards.

Now I could go on one of those online photo services. I have used them occasionally but I like brick and mortar stores. Plus, I don't want to pay extra to overnight the cards. So plan b, purchased cards that will be dolled up with embellishments and glitter glue with a 4 X 6 print inside. The recipients won't care either way but I wanted those photo cards enough to go to 4 stores. (Not enough to plan ahead though!)I can't be the only person who has a good intentions and finds herself running around at the last minute. FEdex was invented for people like me!

Kudos to the teenager with the mohawk and eye makeup (at the local pharmacy) for trying to come up with a solution. He is a natural born retailer. A Bronx cheer to the two buttoned down, white jacketed  adults at the photo stores who looked at me over their reading glasses and snorted when I suggested that other people might want to send Springtime greetings.

Just goes to show you can't judge a great retail clerk by the cover.

The trend in sending cards and other greetings is to create every day holidays. Isn't it a nice surprise to get a card in the mail when you don't normally expect one?

Consider creating some samples  or kits of Spring greeting cards showing kids in Easter finery, Purim costumes or just happy smiling faces and inspire your customers to make every day a card sending holiday! You get the sale and someone else gets a smile.--Beth

Oof.

I was at a local mall last night performing the seasonal ritual of purchasing my son's Easter outfit. I'm not sure if it is creeping prices or malaise about an early holiday (we could have freezing rain on Easter) but an empty mall told a chilling story.

It was empty. And I mean 80% of the people there were in the food court. Now it could be that most people were waiting until next week to see if the prices come down or after the March 15th pay day. But even so, there should have been a line for the Easter bunny or the stores selling candy.

Looks like retailers will have to go the extra mile to make sure they squeeze out some extra Easter sales. Find some last minute promo ideas on our Website.

Don't forget that Easter is part of the Spring celebration which lasts far beyond a single Sunday and crosses ethnic and religious boundaries. Consider creating some Spring- themed cards and layouts in addition to the holiday ones.

As for my house, we'll be exploring new ways to embellish easter eggs after the great purple dye debacle of 2007. Egg dye and squirmy pre-schoolers are a recipe for disaster. I  am thinking stickers are sounding good right about now.

In fact, I think I'll go on a clear sticker hunt this weekend and see what I can come up with to decorate eggs and also just jars that I will be using as gifts for my family. And glitter glue that is my son's favorite. We're also doing an egg tree for my son's room. He like idea of a Christmas tree so much, that thing will never go in the attic!

Inspire last minute Annies like me with some quick and easy ideas for decorating or gifting for Spring. Give your staff a challenge. Hand them a basket, a bottle, a flower pot or any kind of container and see what kind of project or gift package they come up with!

Have a good one-- Beth

Feedback from retailers at the CHA Show tells me there is a lot of interest in learning how to use online media to market a business. I agree, so we will continue with our articles on that topic.

To that end, I am wiggling the typing figures and "writing" an article on blogging for our June/July issue. (Yes yes the real deadline passed ages ago but I can't resist squeezing this in)  I've done some web searches on scrapbooking blogs and clearly the tone of the blogs is as unique as the person drafting them.

Being a fairly private person I feel it's brave to share all your "stuff" out in a public forum. I am much more guarded although there are plenty of times I am dying to tell my audience about the exceedingly cute thing my 5 year old did that day. Maybe I need two blogs- a personal and work one. The idea brings up some very interesting issues when it comes the separation of business and private lives.

I don't mean to tease but we have some good content on that coming up!

In the meantime... if you are a scrapbook professional who posts a blog, would you please contribute to my article by telling me:

Why do you blog?
What does it do for your business?
Were there any surprises that arose from the blogging process? Weird feedback? Unexpected results?

I'd really love to hear from you because it will provide industry perspective to the article. Please email me directly at Beth.Mauro@fwpubs.com.

Looking forward to hearing from you!--Beth

USA Today reports that a number of businesses are building promotions around April 13-15. These aren't your typical "spend your refund here!" promos but a way to link in to the widespread angst of tax season to connect with customers.

Staples is using tax day to showcase its Copy & Print Center services. Filers can make a free copy of their 2007 return up to 20 pages.The Container Store online tax time sale encourages customers to "organize before you itemize."

Other types of service businesses- especially food & spirits folks are going for discounts deals.

Scrapbook retailers have an opportunity to capitalize on the de-stressing benefits of scrapbooking....

• Create your own Tax Pack kit of business/office supply themed papers and embellishments and offer it at discount-  maybe sell it at last year's price.
• Sponsor a scrapping marathon on tax day and stay open past midnight ( at least one hour past the post office!). Bring in folks to do short back or foot massages to add to the fun.
  
• Create a buy back event, offering .25, .50, 1.00 each for customers' supplies to give them cash to spend in your store that day. (Insist that everything is in saleable condition). Take all the stuff you've bought back and create $1 and $5 grab bags  to resell in store.
  

The point is to use this holiday that will likely get plenty of tv coverage and use it to your advantage. Encourage other local retailers to do the same kind of promotion and then create a press release together and send to your local newspapers and especially tv stations.

Not only will you provide your customers a service, you may get a little PR mention on the local news broadcast.--Beth

Happy Monday.

We've been without email a couple of days and I feel like I am alone on an ice floe. Ok well I still have the phone but wow! Have I come to really rely on email to get the most possible work done. It brings me to some more suggestions about reaching out to the media for National Craft Month.

An editor's job is to discern what information is most relevant to her readers. At the end of the day if your pitch, no matter how great it is, does not offer my readers something they want or need, it won't go anywhere.

Over the years I have seen some great products overlooked while mediocre products get tons of press. How does that happen you wonder? Did you ever hear the quote about 90% of success is just showing up? The same applies to PR.

So I thought I'd share some dos and don'ts in the hope that when you reach out to your media whether it is newspaper, radio, tv, online- whatever it is- you will have more success.

Do get your materials in my hands- CDs with art and releases are good as are extranet sites that allow me to download photos of your product. If you can't do either of those things that's fine. Being able to turn around information and photos requested within the hour will win you that placement. Think NYC speed. When I say I need it right away, I mean can you email it to me now.

Don't stalk your editor- Like you, editors are busy people with lots and lots of meetings and deadlines. We're on the phone a lot and many of us travel. If we don't return your call within 24 hours please don't leave a nasty message.  If I am interested I will get back to you as soon as I can. This is a case when email can be your friend. You may get a faster response if you send an email.

Do send us your ideas- Are you working on something hot? Let us know in advance so we can do some research or schedule you in if we really like the idea.

Do know the media outlet's audience-For example- Scrapbook Retailer is a b to b publication for the paper crafts industry. If you are trying to pitch me a stained glass product be prepared to tell me how that relates to the scrapbook retailer.

Do make it easy- Avoid making more work in the form of follow up for the editor. If she asks for a high resolution photo, don't send a photo from your website-that won't work.

Finally, one last reminder... and this may be a tough one for my fellow control freaks. You don't get to control the message- Editors are required to get the facts right but we are going to write about something as it relates to our reader (and  as space allows).Direct quotes must be accurate, but otherwise if you must get a message across in your words- ads are the route for that.

Basically the rules of PR are the same as what your mom told you. If you want something, be nice and helpful to the person you're asking the favor  of.--Beth