New MSA Retail Tip: Top 10 SEO Tips
from MSA
While optimizing your museum store's Web site for search engines can seem tougher than launching the space shuttle, the fact is, there are a number of fairly easy tactics you can use to quickly climb ahead of the competition. Featured in the fall issue of Museum Store magazine, now you can read the "Top 10 SEO Tips" online, including links to valuable Web sites and online resources. 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. 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    

2010 MSA Media Kit Now Available (7 MB PDF)
from MSA
The best approach to marketing your products and services to your customers is frequent advertising. Did you know that a prospective customer needs to see your advertisement at least three times before they will take action? MSA has multiple advertising opportunities for every strategy and budget. Contact Tamara Garlett at tamarag@skies.com or (503) 726-4983 today for a custom solution to meet your needs. Download the 7 MB PDF    

One New Position Posted to MSA's Job Source
from MSA
One new position has been posted to Job Source, MSA's online resource for the most up-to-date job listings in the cultural commerce industry. More    

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Holiday

Retailers, Suppliers Brace for Tough Holiday Season
from Brandweek
Retailers and suppliers are preparing for a tough holiday season, according to a new report. The study, "U.S. Small and Middle Market Outlook 2009: Retailers and Suppliers Take Stock of Economic Downturn," found that 67 percent of retailers planned to stock less inventory than in 2008. Nearly half (48 percent) said they should have carried less inventory during the first half of 2008. More    

Kicking Off Christmas
from OneCoast
With summer over and Christmas just a little more than 100 days from now, many retailers are turning their attention to the holidays and working on putting together their strategies and plans. There will be a lot of time over the next three and a half months to put together a successful holiday but here are a few early thoughts about what will be key. More    

Retailers Set to Leap Into Seasonal Sales, Tighten Reins on Costs
from The Boston Herald
Autumn is just arriving and already struggling retailers are gearing up for the holiday shopping season. Analysts say consumers can expect a full onslaught to begin by month's end. Shoppers also can expect less merchandise from which to choose and weaker customer service from retailers trying to control costs by keeping leaner inventories and staffing fewer workers. More    

Report: Holiday Spending Predicted Flat with Last Year
from Chain Store Age
With consumers still reeling from the toughest economic pressures in decades, retailers should expect sales to remain flat compared with the 2008 holiday shopping season, according to a Deloitte forecast. "Although there are signs that suggest the economy is nearing the end of its darkest days, many consumers remain burdened by restricted credit availability, high unemployment and foreclosures," said Carl Steidtmann, chief economist with Deloitte Research. More     

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Retail Industry's Performance is Provoking Mixed Reactions
from the San Antonio Business Journal
According to a recent analysis of retail activity, the back-to-school crowds and the tax-free shopping weekend helped to bolster sales at the country's chain stores. But the boost wasn’t enough to get retailers over the sales slump hump in August. More    

Grab Your Unfair Share
from Stores Magazine
After successive years watching IT-savvy competitors financially outperform the industry as a whole, more retailers are pursuing competitive advantage through the strategic use of IT. Some are further along than others and, for them, the ability to leverage information to make better, faster and more profitable decisions has created such a strong operating advantage that it can seem almost unfair as other retailers struggle to catch up. More     

Product Showcase: ChemArt Our artisans have perfected the making of an ornament. Like the White House Historical Association, many museums and historic organizations work with ChemArt to create a unique ornament to sell, to use to raise funds, as a thank you or to commemorate a special event. Let us help you today. More info

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U.S., EU Face Off Over Travel, Again
from The Washington Times
New legislation passed by the Senate last week and likely to be approved by the House would levy a $10 fee that must be paid by each international passenger along with an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) application. According to the bill, the fee is for "tourism promotion" and has nothing to do with ESTA. More     

Partnership Would Lure Tourists From Overseas
from the Las Vegas Review-Journal
The Senate voted last week to create a nonprofit corporation that would market the United States as a tourist destination for travelers around the world. Senators voted 79-19 for the Travel Promotion Act of 2009, their first substantive vote after returning from summer recess. More    

Tourism Push Paying Off
from The Buffalo News Opinion
It took a lot of hard work to make this happen: Buffalo is taking shape as a tourist destination. That's a welcome turn of events for an oft-derided city, which now should make the most of its emerging new image. More    

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How to Keep Online Shopping Carts On Target
from the E-commerce Times
Shopping cart abandonment doesn't just mean a lost sale. It's an indicator of deeper challenges retailers are experiencing in their sales process. With the holiday shopping season quickly approaching, now is a particularly important time to evaluate your checkout process, and ensure it's optimized to convert as many sales as possible. More    

Why Your Advertising Isn't Working
from Business Week
Recently, an AdweekMedia poll of LinkedIn members posed this question: "Of the ads you see in a typical day, how many engage your attention?" A remarkable two-thirds of respondents said "a small minority of them." Another quarter answered "none of them." Together, that's 91 percent. Only one in 100 respondents said "most of them." If you find yourself nodding your head and wringing your hands right now, keep in mind this simple business axiom: Companies get the advertising they deserve. If your advertising isn't working, it may be you that's the problem. More    

Is Your E-mail Marketing Shareworthy?
from Entrepreneur.com
According to Richard Evans, Senior Product Marketing Manager at email marketing automation firm Silverpop, "social e-mail" has the potential to be the new viral, but only if you tap into the right resources. While Evans' message was simple -- as use of social networks/media continues to gain mass adoption, integrating e-mail marketing and social media through social sharing links should be a "must include" feature in marketers' e-mail programs -- it's one that is often overlooked by entrepreneurs and marketing professionals alike. More    

The Top Five Business Blogging Mistakes -- And How to Avoid Them
from Open Forum
Business blogging can be exceptionally rewarding. When done correctly, a successful blog can bring attention to your business, can attract new customers, and can turn your current customer base into the type of fans who will not only buy your product or service, but evangelize it to their peers. Of course, like anything, there is a right way to go about starting a business blog and a wrong way. More    

Simplify Facebook and Twitter with the ABC's of Social Media
from OneCoast
Many folks come to social media and attempt to short-circuit the process by over-automating, over-broadcasting and over-delegating -- and they miss out on the vital components of connecting, engaging and building relationships. Here are some ABC's to help simplify your social media efforts. More    

Want Product Noticed? Mix It Up!
from OneCoast
From theming products by color to rearranging existing merchandise, retailers have found ways to pique customer interest. More    

Security Badges Can Boost E-commerce Conversion Rates
from 123 Print
Combating shopping cart abandonment may be more important than ever during difficult economic times, when sales are down and every customer counts. Yet abandonment becomes even more prevalent during these times, with a recent study from Amaze reporting that 87.4 percent of customers do not buy what they place in their online shopping carts during the same session. But websites with a security cue such as a trustmark or security badge icon had conversion rates that were 11 percent higher than ecommerce sites without a security cue. More    

Survival Tips for Retailers
from The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Is a wave of store closings coming at the end of the year? Yes, according to the "retail distress" experts at Grant Thornton, who say that as many as 10,000 retail stores in 2009 could go dark by New Year's, twice as many as in 2008. But there are ways savvy retailers can survive, the company says, including by committing to financial management and process improvement initiatives. More    

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Is Your Website Up to Speed?
from Internet Retailer
Time is running out for web sites with slowly loading pages to speed up: 47 percent of online consumers say they expect a web page to load in two seconds or less -- down from a four second threshold three years ago, says a new study. More    

Retailers Battle Credit Card Fees
from The Washington Post
Congress is considering three bills that would regulate the so-called interchange fees -- which generally amount to 1 to 2 percent of a total sale and totaled $48 billion in 2008. Merchants across the country and the card industry are waging a fight for public support. The merchants say the fees are excessive and eat into their already small profit margins, forcing them to pass on the cost to consumers. The card issuers say they are providing merchants a much-needed service as more Americans choose to pay for their purchases with plastic. More    

In Bruising Times, Companies Use Secret Weapon: Customer Service
from Cincinnati.com
During the toughest of economic times -- amid cost-cutting measures, staffing reductions and delayed investments -- customer service often suffers. Yet excellent service is one of the most crucial ways for a company to withstand and ensure success in the future, experts say. More    

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Report Shatters Myths About Cultural Activities
from The Philadelphia Inquirer
People of color are far more likely to participate in some cultural activity during the course of a year than are white people. Ditto for families with children over childless couples. Yet people who attend a performance or a museum are not likely to return within a year, or maybe even longer. More    

Arts Community Shocked by New Tax Burden
from The Philadelphia Inquirer
The budget deal reached late Friday in Harrisburg, Pa., which includes an extension of the state sales tax to cultural performances and venues -- including museums -- has stunned and angered the arts community. Even though state officials said some portion of the new cultural sales tax would flow back to venues -- and the exact nature of this remained murky -- arts administrators pointed out that state support had already been radically reduced. The tax would not be imposed on movies or sports events. More    

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