by Board Retailers Association | May 27, 2022 | Associate Members, Educational Opportunity, m-commerce, News, Resources, Retail Strategy, Retail Technologies, Social Commerce, Social Media
A warm and enthusiastic WELCOME to our newest BRA Supporting Vendor Partner Crystal Media! As a Board Retailers Association member, you save 15% on select Crystal Media Services! As always, we at BRA continue to bring you Supporting Vendor Partners that are here to save you time and money. Crystal Media is one of them. Take a look and decide for yourself whether this will work for you and your company, Please give us feedback at doug@boardretailers.org with your opinions. For a decade, Crystal Media has been devoted to helping retailers—just like you—grow through social media. Their team has worked with thousands of companies in the retail industry to help them generate millions of dollars in additional revenue by deploying successful social media campaigns, providing consulting services, and managing digital marketing on their behalf. They’ve also taught thousands of retailers how to implement social media that delivers powerful results. What makes Crystal Media special is their unmatched expertise of retail and social media which allows them to produce what their clients care about most—results. Their passionate, approachable team of experts that, as a client, becomes an extension of your team—encouraging and supporting you no matter what your comfort level is with social media. They live their happy-to-help motto everyday, and are grateful to play a small role in helping independent businesses make a positive impact in their local communities. Check out these Crystal Media services to see what’s right for you and your business.Board Retailers Association members save 15%! Use code BRA15 at checkout.➤ Insider: The social media membership every retailer needs. Get comprehensive, on-demand training, transformative virtual and in-person...
by Board Retailers Association | Apr 20, 2022 | Associate Members, Educational Opportunity, Resources, Retail Strategy, Retail Technologies
Google reviews impact the customer journey more than ever. When it comes to getting found by your customers, local businesses—those with a physical presence—actually have a huge advantage. But if your business isn’t shining online, you’ll see fewer customers coming through your doors. By taking proactive steps to secure reviews, your business will see both an increase in traffic to your website and your physical location. Learn how to get hundreds of Google reviews and beat the competition in our “Google Reviews 101” eBook. A Message for Retailers: Go Digital Customers prefer messaging almost twice as much as any other communication method. It’s not close. This report from NAPCO and Podium finds why that is, where businesses are investing their resources, and the actual results of digital communication. 83% of retailers are using at least one digital channel to communicate with customersHalf of retailers offer a live chat or texting option, or bothTexting results in a 35% conversion rate Download the guide today! BRA note: We are very pleased to mention that Podium has joined Board Retailers Association as a BRA Supporting Vendor Partner. If you would like to be introduced via email to the solid people behind this outstanding resource, email me. – Doug Works, BRA Executive Director If you are not yet a BRA Retail Member, you can easily opt in to either Regular (no cost) or Distinguished ($100/yr.) Membership via this super simple join...
by Board Retailers Association | Apr 15, 2022 | Educational Opportunity, Resources, Retail Strategy, Retail Technologies
Image Via Unblast When your business launches new products and services, not all customers can understand your new product or services right away. If you want to introduce your brands, you can use explainer videos instead. An explainer video is a short video designed to explain important information about services, details benefits of a product, educational content, and others. This type of video helps the audience understand the information easier. Most people prefer learning with visual aids. Thus, video content is easier to attract the attention of viewers than any other content because viewers retain 95% of video messages compared to text content. That’s why companies have started using explainer videos to showcase ideas to customers. Explainer videos help answer customers’ hard questions that no other content marketing campaign does. Here are five reasons why. 1. Simplify Complex Ideas When your business is having trouble explaining a new product or service, explainer videos help you simplify complex messages to make them easier for your customers to understand. For example, if you want to demonstrate the latest products, you can use product demo videos to explain them in an engaging way. This form of explainer video helps attract new customers because they can learn about the product way easier. Explainer videos can also increase brand visibility, increase lead generation, and ultimately, lead to higher sales. That’s why many companies use explainer videos as their marketing strategy to introduce their new product or services. 2. Give Easy Demonstration Explainer videos provide easy demonstrations for your business. They help deliver important information to the audience by giving digestible step-by-step tutorials in an...
by Board Retailers Association | Apr 14, 2022 | Educational Opportunity, Resources, Retail Strategy
As prices rise and customers become vocal about the difference between what they thought something would cost versus what you offer, it is important to sell value over price. When I was a college senior majoring in conducting, my final project was to perform a conducting recital. It was a culmination of my 4+ year journey from almost flunking out to mastering creating music. My choral conducting mentor had suggested I conduct Faure’s Pavane for Six Flutes but that didn’t make the cut for me. Even then I wanted to make a big spectacle. I would conduct several movements from Bernstein’s Mass, several smaller choral pieces, and start with the Overture to King Stephen. All told I had about 40 musicians to work with. It took a lot of asking, pleading, and even paying to get people to commit to rehearsals and the performance. Right before I began rehearsal, I met with the professor of instrumental conducting to review my scores. I handed him the Beethoven. He thumbed his fingers to the climax, read down the page, and without looking up to me simply asked, “How many fiddles do you have?” I proudly said, “A dozen,” in that cocky way when you’re 20 and everything is bright. “You’ll need 18,” he said as he picked up the Bernstein. “You’ll never hear the melody.” “But wait,” I said. “It took me a lot to get those players and I don’t have the money to pay another six instrumentalists.” He dismissed me and said, “Good luck.” In rehearsals, all went well. I heard the melody just fine. What a jerk, I remember thinking. The night of the...
by Board Retailers Association | Apr 1, 2022 | E-Commerce, Educational Opportunity, News, Resources, Retail Strategy, Retail Technologies
Keeping pace with consumer trends and changing behaviours is key to the success of retail operations, particularly when managing the impact of current global events on supply chains to ensure they’re able to consistently meet demand. According to the latest CBI quarterly Distributive Trades Survey, consumer confidence is growing as retail sales volumes were 16% higher than seasonal norms in February. How retailers respond to this growing confidence will be key to maximising sales opportunities and effectively managing seasonal peaks. One of the ways in which retailers can more accurately monitor and therefore predict how consumer behaviour will change is having access to accurate data about what’s impacting the sale and return of their products. To help retailers understand consumer behaviour, international logistics company Advanced Supply Chain Group’s (ASCG), latest research has pinpointed the consumer trends that will have the greatest impact on supply chains in 2022 and the actions retailers are taking to embrace consumer shopping habits and improve supply chain agility. Three of six key trends identified in ASCG’s latest eBook research include: 1) Spread the cost The concept of shopping through home catalogues and placing postal orders will be alien to most of today’s generation of online shoppers. However, they are increasingly familiar with the concept of spreading the cost of payments, which made home-shopping catalogues such a hit in previous decades. This concept has been digitised, with ‘shop now, pay later’ options like Klarna becoming something of a default purchasing behaviour for a growing share of internet shoppers. This can have huge ramifications for supply chains, as it can make goods with higher retail selling prices more...
by Board Retailers Association | Mar 31, 2022 | Accounting and Business Services, Associate Members, Educational Opportunity, News, Resources, Retail Strategy
CohnReznick recently became a BRA Supporting Vendor Partner. Jeff, can you tell us a little bit about your background and CohnReznick? I am a partner in CohnReznick’s Consumer Industry Practice and have worked at the firm for over 30 years. I provide accounting, audit, and business planning services to my clients, many of whom I am proud to have worked with since I was a first-year staffer. I advise privately-held family and entrepreneurial consumer businesses as well as private equity-backed companies in all stages of their business lifecycles to help them optimize performance, increase value, and execute financial transactions. I represent clients in the apparel, footwear, sporting goods, accessories, consumer packaged goods, and fitness, health, and wellness consumer categories. As a young kid, I spent some time skateboarding and wound up falling down more times than I could count. As an adult, my family and I spent some time trying to learn to ski and snowboard, but let’s just say gravity is not my best friend. CohnReznick is one of the leading advisory, accounting, and tax firms in the U.S. We have been supporting the consumer products industry for over 100 years and understand the operational and logistical challenges these businesses face in today’s competitive marketplace. We serve clients in all segments of the industry, including direct-to-consumer, e-commerce, wholesale, and retail. What kinds of specialized services do you provide to your consumer clients? Beyond the traditional services like accounting and tax return preparation, we can assist most clients in all facets of their business by providing strategic, financial, and advisory services that can help unlock growth. CohnReznick’s Consumer team can...
