State of the Industry
Is The Economy Recovering Happening For Your Business?
In a recent NRF SmartBrief, daily newsletter, it reported that “Retailers cautiously optimistic as sales beat expectations”… “It’s safe to say the worst is over for most retailers. And particularly for those outside the home goods area, the tide is turning,” said economist Frank Badillo. “We’re seeing consumers continuing to spend, in much the same [...]
UPDATE: Virginia House Kills “Amazon” Law
Senate Bill 660, introduced by Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr. (Augusta County), was officially defeated yesterday by the Virginia House of Delegates Finance Committee. Senate Bill 660 would have created a new nexus standard to require certain Internet retailers to collect Virginia sales tax from its Virginia customers even if the [...]
Micros-RETAIL in 2009
In our continuing series of highlighting the positive aspects of 2009, I had a recent conversation with Chris Sarne, Regional Vice President of Sales for Micros-RETAIL and he shared the following insights to their successes in 2009.
Chris had the following insights regarding Micros-RETAIL for this past holiday season. Many of Micros-RETAIL’s clients had great success [...]
Escalate Retail’s 2009 Highlights
In our continuing series of highlighting the positive aspects of 2009 I had a recent conversation with Brian Johnson, Vice President and General Manager for Escalate Retail and he shared the following insights to their successes in 2009.
With Escalate Retail’s release of Ecometry Commerce Suite version 10.0.4 last December, customers now have PCI certified PA-DSS [...]
Diverse Targets For Warehouse Cost Reduction
I recently took a step back and tried to determine what type of company would use our warehouse consulting services. We try to help businesses with their warehousing needs by providing a variety of consulting services. Our goal is to help businesses cope with these challenging economic times by making recommendations for controlling their operating [...]
Natural Solutions’ 2009 Summary
As there has been so much negativity in the press about the economy and business failures in 2009, F. Curtis Barry & Company would like to focus on some of the positive aspects of last year. This is the first in a series of blogs that will highlight clients and vendors in the multi-channel retail [...]
Online Sales Taxes Now Valid in Three States
In this past Sunday’s (10.18.09) Parade Magazine, which is read by millions, an article caught my eye on Internet Sales Tax – “States Push for Online Sales Taxes”. This has been a recurring threat that has now taken a step forward. The States of New York, Rhode Island and North Carolina are now requiring retailers [...]
How Well Is Your Warehouse Treating Your Customers?
It never ceases to amaze me how companies will spend untold time and money to source product and find someone to buy it and then provide poor enough fulfillment services that the customer never comes back. If you consider the cost of acquiring a customer, it makes sense to me that you would do everything [...]
Shopping Cart Abandonment, A Consumer’s Advantage?
I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine discussing the opportunities of shopping on the Internet. Okay, in reality we were discussing how the economy has affected consumer buying patterns and what we were really after is finding the best bargains. My friend shared with me something that I had not heard of [...]
Transportation Turmoil
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, shipping packages becomes a little more uncertain. Certain events are adding confusion to an already unsettling situation. With outbound freight costs representing 6 – 8 % of sales and inbound another 2 – 4 % for domestic and 6 -12 % for imported product, changes to [...]

