July 31st, 2010
Amazon's Kindle
Occasionally a product arrives that changes the marketplace for ever.
Arguably Apple’s iPhone has changed the mobile phone market while their iPad has ended the dominance of the netbook and laptop for working on the move. Certainly their iPod changed the music industry for ever.
Yet it is Amazon’s Kindle (ebook reader) that may prove to have the most far-reaching affects. It may herald the end of the printed book and traditional publishing.
On 20 July 2010 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced that Kindle format sales were now greater than sales of hardback books.
He explained: ” While our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books– astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.”
The online bookseller put out a release full of intriguing facts. Nevertheless, the company still has not released straightforward figures about total Kindle sales or total eBooks sold. Among the other details, the company revealed they have sold three times as many Kindle books in the first half of 2010 compared to the first half of 2009.
Amazon also shared this statistic for paid books: “Over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books.”
Already the dominance of Amazon has contributed to the disappearance of the traditional High Street bookshop, which is being driven out by a lethal combination of cheaper online prices, guaranteed next day delivery and endless choice. Not to mention ever-increasing shop rents and parking charges.
However, the final nail in the coffin of the small, friendly bookshop may prove to be the Kindle – the iPod of the book world? Now the UK version of the Kindle launches in August.
Even The Sun newspaper featured the news as a lead story yesterday - see http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/fun/gizmo/3075557/Amazon-launch-new-UK-Kindle-e-book-reader.html
Watch this space. Soon your favourite author’s new book may not be available at WH Smith – only as an ebook.
Amazon’s dominance continues.
Posted in branding, design, marketing, retail, sales | No Comments »
March 12th, 2009
A trip along Oxford Street yesterday at lunchtime showed in ‘real time’ the shift in retail spending.
The street was very crowded with shoppers, many of them tourists from France and Italy or from Eastern Europe, enjoying the reduction in sterling’s value.
Yet many of the lunchtime shoppers were clely locals who had ‘escaped’ from nearby offices to enjoy the early spring sunshine and to browse the rails.
What was interesting from a marketer’s perspective was what the shoppers were buying.
A quick review of the carrier bags that shoppers were carrying yesterday showed that the clear winners were Primark and Selfridges. Certainly both stores were very busy with queues at tills, particularly at the former.
The carriers that were glaringly absent were from the ‘middle market’ – Next, M&S, Bhs etc.
This was a physical demonstration of market positioning with consumers shopping at the top of the market and the bottom.
While these observations spring from two hours one lunchtime, it does show that is being reflected in market share and share prices – the middle market is finding the going tough.
Retailers in the middle ground need to create a reason why we should shop there. Differentiation is the key! Give us a reason to spend money with you!
Oxford St image courtesy of The Guardian
Posted in CRM, marketing, retail, sales | No Comments »
February 28th, 2009
Listening to a recent Radio 4 Today programme interview with Geoff Cooper CEO of Wickes (and the Travis Perkins Group) it appeared that company was well-placed to ride out the current recession.
He was later quoted as saying ” We took early action in 2008 to deal with the increasingly tough trading environment and have set our business ready to manage continuing difficult market conditions in 2009. We have already taken decisive action, and stand ready to take further steps if necessary.” (Source www.diyweek.net)
However, on the radio he added that high staff turnover was a feature of their business and appeared to view it favourably as a way of managing staff costs.
It made me think. Usually businesses want to keep their staff since recuiting and training new employees is costly in both temporal and financial resources.
Making working conditions as appealing as possible in order to retain staff has always been a ‘given’ in management terms.
So could the current market conditions be leading to a new model in which companies welcome staff departures as a way of controlling costs?
This may look appealing to the accountants but has big ramifications for Customer Relationship Management!
It is no co-incidence that John Lewis is performing well in difficult market conditions. Their staff actually know something about the products they are selling – unlike the average salesperson in Wickes or B&Q.
Staff knowledge as a Key Performance or Profit Indicator? Why not!
I know in which store I prefer to buy my everyday DIY products!
Travis Perkins underperforms but Tile Giant sales up
Posted in CRM, management, marketing, profits, public relations, sales | 1 Comment »
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