Online Renewal Now Available for MSA Members
from MSA
MSA members -- renew your membership for 2010 online! Just go to the home page of MuseumStoreAssociation.org, click on the renewal graphic and log in. Make sure to renew by Nov. 1, 2009, to be in the running for a free 2009 MSA Retail Industry Report (a $349 value) or free registration to the 2010 MSA Conference & Expo (a $555 value)! More

Retail Study Released: Museum Store Visitors and Net Sales Growing
from MSA
The average museum retail store attracts more than 85,000 visitors and boasts net sales of more than $200,000 annually according to findings in the 2009 MSA Retail Industry Report. Median visitor and net sales values are each up 16.5% since the previous study was conducted in 2006. Order Your Copy Today! The report was brought to you in part by the following industry supporters: Champion Level -- Andoniadis Retail Services; Supporter Level -- New York International Gift Fair and PartnerShip. More

Easy Tips to Improve Online Sales
from MSA
It's not too late to access MSA's webinar, "Maximizing E-commerce Sales!" This valuable session is available as an on-demand recording for the next 30 days! Tune in and find out how you can improve your e-commerce success with easy-to-implement solutions to keep customers on your Web site and buying! To order visit www.MuseumStoreAssociation.org. More

MSA Needs Your Excellent Store Photos
from MSA
MSA needs your bright, clear, high resolution (at least 300 dpi) digital photos taken in your stores that show people shopping and enjoying the store experience. We are not looking for basic store photos—they must have people in them and be high quality images! If you have any photos that fit the bill that you are willing to send to us with blanket permission for use, please contact Tina Eichner at teichner@MuseumStoreAssociation.org. Photos may be used in tradeshow displays, articles, advertisements and in other marketing materials. Thank you for your help! More

Recession-Stung Stores Plan Old-Fashioned Holidays
from The Associated Press
Stores are turning back the clock, conjuring images of hearth and home as they stock their holiday merchandise. Retailers hope embracing holiday traditions from cozier times will tempt recession-weary consumers to open their wallets in a season expected to show flat sales at best. That means shoppers will see more gingerbread houses and peppermint crunch cookies, and fewer exotic teas and flavored olive oils; classic ball ornaments instead of offbeat cowboys or cartoon-themed character figures; and an emphasis on simple festive wear like shimmery tops instead of elaborately beaded gowns. Traditional Christmas colors like red, green and gold, are also back. More

September Sales May Foreshadow Holidays
from The Wall Street Journal
Retailers and analysts will be closely watching September sales reports from key store chains for any sign they may need to adjust their already-gloomy holiday forecasts. Two analyst reports predict that Christmas season sales will be flat with last year's dismal results while a third projects they will fall one percent. More

Retail Sector's September Jobs Drop Adds to Concern About Holidays
from The Wall Street Journal
Retailers resumed their significant job cuts in September, suggesting that soft back-to-school buying may fold into another disappointing Christmas season as consumers keep a close eye on their cash. The retail industry shed 38,500 positions in September after losing 8,800 spots the prior month as government incentives for auto buyers prompted dealerships to boost their employment ranks in August. The job losses in the sector last month were lower than numbers seen earlier in the year, but higher than the average of recent months. Attention now turns to the outlook for holiday-related hiring, which looks generally bleak even though there are a few bright spots. More

10 Retail Trends for 2010
from MarketingDaily
Discover the 10 trends for marketers for 2010 that will have direct consequences to the success, or failure, of next year's branding and marketing efforts. More

Buffalo Cultural Tourism Exceeding Expectations
from The Buffalo News
Buffalo is morphing from Rust Belt punch line into a national cultural tourism destination much faster than expected. A 2006 analysis of visitation to area cultural attractions had showed that most tourists were “brainiacs” and “bifocal intellectuals” strictly interested in art and architecture, Louise Stevens of ArtsMarket told cultural leaders at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site. More

Buzz Over AT&T Performing Arts Center Poised to Help Polish Dallas' Image
from The Dallas Morning News
From geek to chic, disparate publications are probing almost every aspect of Dallas' new AT&T Performing Arts Center as it primps for its Oct. 12 bow. Equally important is changing the image some have of Dallas. "The goal is to entice people to take another look at Dallas," said Kent Rathbun, executive chef of Abacus. "We're well known as a sports destination. We're not as well known as an arts and culture destination. That's changing, albeit slowly. In its recent listing of "America's Cultural Tourism Capitals," Forbes magazine ranked Dallas seventh, behind Chicago and Los Angeles, but ahead of Houston and San Francisco. More

The Three Best Ways to Improve Your Online Reputation
from The Wall Street Journal
These days, a great danger lurks just a few clicks away: the online review. By Googling your company's name, anyone can read and track your business's performance, including missteps, poor service or less-than-stellar products. Protecting reputation is now a 24-hour vigil. Negative reviews, whether they're merited or not, can turn away potential customers and vendors, and reflect badly on your company's brand. The good news is that small-business owners can be proactive in securing positive reviews by asking satisfied customers to share their experiences. But what if it's already too late? More

Social Media is Swell, But Don’t Forget the Basics
from MultiChannel Merchant
There’s no doubt that social media marketing is all the rage, and everyone is either talking about doing it or already engaged in these social channels. People want to know how to make social media work for their business, how to use it to generate leads and obtain more sales. And social media can help you do this, allowing the proper research and strategies are in place. But it can’t do so alone. More

5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies
from Mashable
Social media marketing and the businesses that utilize it have become more sophisticated. More businesses are beginning to understand how to best leverage online tools to build a community and recognize that engagement and interaction are the foundations of social marketing, but most don’t know what’s next. In the linked article, learn about five advanced strategies for those that may already have small online communities and understand how to create an online presence, but don’t know what to do next. More

Local Search Technology Can Get You to the Right Customers, Faster
from the Baltimore Business Journal
Google Local Search occurs automatically when people enter a location along with search terms into search engines to find businesses that are in their area. Because Google has become such an integrated part of consumers’ everyday lives, it is crucial that businesses who serve a particular area, such as a plumber, a veterinarian or a pizza delivery company, spend some time understanding local search and taking steps to appear in those results. More

F.T.C. Will Soon Require Bloggers to Give Full Disclosure
from The New York Times
The F.T.C. said it would revise rules about endorsements and testimonials in advertising that had been in place since 1980. The new regulations are aimed at the rapidly shifting new-media world and how advertisers are using bloggers and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to pitch their wares. The F.T.C. said that beginning on Dec. 1, 2009, bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with advertisers, including, in most cases, the receipt of free products and whether or not they were paid in any way by advertisers, as occurs frequently. More

Retail Technology Standards Explained
from MarketingSherpa
Anyone who has replaced technology knows the headache. Some systems do not work well with others. Read in the linked article about a set of standards that are making it easier for retailers to switch in and out different types of technology, and to get more from their marketing data. More

Speed Sells
from Internet Retailer
Online retailing faces a double whammy: At the same time as consumers expect more rich features on e-commerce sites, they also want those sites to be faster than ever. Even as retail sites have added bandwidth-clogging features like video, zoom and animated content in recent years, consumers have become less willing to wait for pages to load. More

Two-Thirds of Americans Object to Online Tracking
from The New York Times
About two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers, and that number rises once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements, according to a new survey from professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley. More

Retail RFID Today
from STORES Magazine
When it comes to RFID in retail, “There is much more happening than would be apparent to a casual observer, and it has been this way for almost two years,” says Marshall Kay, founder of Wilmette, Ill.-based consulting practice RFID Sherpas and former director of the North American RFID program for Kurt Salmon Associates. More

Museums Struggle to Maintain Programs and Projects
from The Gotham Gazette
New York City’s cultural institutions are accustomed to weathering the ebbs and flows of the economy, but over the past year, the recession has taken its toll on even the most established museums. The city’s cultural institutions have fallen victim to the domino effect set off by the global financial crisis. In spite of these tough times, attendance has increased, giving museum officials a reason to stay positive. Modifying their spending and exhibition schedule, cultural institutions are continuing to pursue long-term projects. More

In Recession, Curators Tap the Treasures at Hand
from The Washington Post
Curators are mounting shows based on their own collections, well aware of the nagging recession. There's nary an expensive blockbuster, 1990s style, in sight. To cope with a significant reduction in donations, many museums have been pulling exclusively from their warehouse collections. More