The Year in Review Besides that 800-pound gorilla crashing around the room—the economy—here’s a look at the seminal events in CE technologies, products and other trends that our roundtable participants thought had the biggest impact on the industry and their businesses in 2008....
Industry Highlights From the Fourth Quarter Each year, retailers and manufacturers look forward to the Consumer Electronics Association’s annual CE Holiday Purchase Pattern Study as a guide to help plan Q4 sales. We ran parts of the report on Dealerscope.com the day it was released at...
The CES Preview Lighting control systems that are easier to install and program. More intuitive and user-friendly remotes. Broader varieties of wireless and home-plug networking solutions. New headphone options....
Attitudes : Circulars, Accessories and Closing the Sale In tough times, retailers are often advised not to cut back on advertising and to improve targeted marketing to key customer segments. Dealerscope wholeheartedly supports that strategy because we’ve seen it work on one of our cheapest employees, someone who...
Attitudes : Enough Already I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of bad economic news. TV, newspapers and Web sites have been overrun with Wall Street reports and analyst ruminations. I get it already, the economy is bad, people are suffering and both...
Big Picture : Prevent a Recession, Empower the Store Manager There are several lessons retailers should learn from the current economic nightmare: Realistic government data on the true state of anything problematic are released much too late in the game, verbal and written analysis from “officials” and “experts” are often...
Consumerscope : The Future of the Display Market The display market is the largest sector of the CE industry, with shipment revenues expected to hit $27.8 billion by the end of this year. It’s also probably the most fiercely competitive sector in the industry....
Superior Sales : Ask For Referrals A successful salesman in his late 30s was fired from his job after a competitor bought out the company he had worked for. He decided on a new career selling insurance policies and financial planning products....
Guerilla Retailing : Starting From Scratch My columns this time of the year usually include a look into the future, urging my readers to make New Year’s resolutions to help them grow their businesses. This year, I’m going to tell a true story about my friend...
Imaging : Teaming Up to Take on 2009 Like most professional photographers today, Mark Bute is scrambling for jobs. The wedding and portrait specialist from Lancaster, Pa., is seeing his business shrink at an alarming rate, not only because people are asking their friends with DSLRs to do...
Floor Polish : The Power of Education In his more than 10 years of teaching architects and interior designers the basics of low-voltage technology, Josh Christian has learned some critical lessons: First, say “drapery,” never “drapes.”...
Dealer Profile : Big George's Big Green Initiative No one with a kid in the house these days gets away with being anything less than environmentally aware. Mark Bishar, vice president of marketing at Big George's Home Appliance Mart, Ann Arbor, Mich., has two kids at home and...
