dealerscope

As our climate changes around us due in part to manufacturing processes using toxic or non-biodegradable materials like plastic, more CE companies are giving sustainability a chance and reducing their environmental impact. For example,   Harman International   (parent company of major tech brands including JBL) is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2040 and 100% renewable energy for its global manufacturing by 2025.   This is an important dynamic for the industry since the personal audio market (headphones and portable speakers) has been blowing up year after year, and despite a very slight dip in 2022, it is widely predicted to return to growth over the next several years. And all those products—and their packaging—will eventually wind up in landfills to the detriment of our environment.   Companies are responding by getting creative, incorporating solar charging and shifting towards using more eco-friendly materials like bioplastics and bamboo as well as rec...

It’s hard to believe that we’re already at the start of Q2 this year, but there’s still plenty to think about strategically in the coming months. For the rest of the year, the most important resolve is to learn about the following areas to improve the customer experience and beat out the competition. Here are several technology areas to review and add to your plans for 2022. 1) Understand the products as part of the customer journey. The need to create a better customer experience for the coming year is a hot topic. With the number of options available for consumers when purchasing technology products, it is up to retailers to set themselves apart from the competitors by not only understanding the technology trends and the products, but also how to provide the best customer journey possible.   Since there are numerous options when it comes to making technology purchases, not only in brands, but also options of where to buy, understanding the products is vital. Understa...

  THE DAILY SCOPE, 4/4/2022: The grocery and CPG retail business is often a harbinger of things to come – maybe it’s just because everyone buys food, even non-TV households – so it’s a good place to gauge the mood of consumers. After a pandemic that started with shortages of household goods like toilet paper and cleaning supplies, the current lineup of basics isn’t exactly flying off the shelves. The Wall St. Journal reports that consumers are returning to store brands and buying smaller quantities of everything from laundry detergent to cereal. With shortages during the pandemic, many retailers upped their production on in-store brands, so that move dovetails nicely with the need for more affordable products. There is no indication that this trend is particularly rampant in the CE retail sector, but the category most likely to be enticing for consumers looking to save money could be accessories like cables, power solutions, and power adapters. This could be a g...

As we all know, the pandemic put a major strain on retailers’ inventory capacities and led to a series of shortages that have plagued the industry for the past two years. But, how was an industry that is so often on the cutting edge of technology and business strategy crippled by one of its most basic tenets: getting products to customers? According to Nikki Baird, Vice President of Strategy at Apos, the typical retailer only keeps roughly 30 percent of its inventory reserved for eCommerce. In an interview with Forbes , Baird went on to say that, “for nonessential retailers that didn’t have omnichannel systems and processes in place, when their stores were temporarily closed and e-commerce volumes skyrocketed, all they had available to sell was the limited inventory sitting in their e-commerce warehouses. Once that stock ran out, if they didn’t have the ability to tap into their store inventory, they were left with virtually nothing to sell.” In other news, Ring, ...

  CES is to PC gaming hardware what E3 is to console gaming software: ground zero for all the newest, most cutting-edge products the consumer electronics industry has to offer. Interestingly, perhaps the most exciting trend at this year’s show was a spate of monitors and televisions designed with gaming in mind: new display technology, more interesting form factors, and faster refresh rates (thanks in part to HDMI 2.1 integration  — more on that in a bit). Of course, this year’s show was another big one for gaming hardware in general, with manufacturers showing off a slew of gaming laptops, VR headsets, and more. We combed through this avalanche of unveilings to come up with some of our top picks from the show. Displays Display technology feels like it’s reaching new heights at a regular clip these days, and manufacturers had an impressive range of gaming monitors at CES 2022. Samsung, for one, showed off the world’s first QD-OLED display in the form of its Odyssey G8QNB 34-inch g...

  THE DAILY SCOPE, 11/18/21: If the proliferation of drugstores on nearly every other corner gets you down, then you’ll be happy to know that CVS will be closing 900 locations over the next three years. It’s part of parent company CVS Health’s strategy to transform its brick-and-mortar retail stores from being merely pharmacies that also sell sundries, consumer packaged goods, groceries, batteries, chargers, cables, cameras, and other small electronics into bonafide medical health facilities.  Remaining stores will be reimagined and redesigned as HealthHUBs where consumers can see their primary care physicians and mental health specialists and get diagnostic tests. Suddenly Abbott President and CEO Robert Ford’s keynote at CES 2022 doesn’t seem so out of place, because a big part of retail’s future will also be healthcare. It’ll be interesting to see how CVS implements self-check-out style technology for diagnostics—that only seems like a matter of time as increasingly telemed...

THE DAILY SCOPE, 11/16/21: No surprise to anyone in the CE or appliance retail sector, but retail sales were up for the third straight month in October. At 1.7 percent, according to the Labor Department, the rise was the highest since March. This of course is in tandem with the fastest rise in prices in 30 years, but it was still good news for most retail entities from the National Retail Federation to Home Depot, which saw a 9.8 percent jump in sales for Q3 and Walmart, which reported a 9.2 percent increase in comparable sales in Q3 2021 versus 8 percent in Q3 2020. The rollercoaster ride continues. Some beneficiaries of stock scarcity are products that may have seemed more niche just a couple of years ago. Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has sold 10 million Oculus Quest 2 headsets, which is an impressive number for a metaverse communications and gaming console (also known as a VR headset). The news was shared by Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon at the semiconductor company’s...

  During times of low unemployment, it’s more important to reach out to potential employees instead of waiting for them to come to you. Below are eight strategies you can use to help find employees for your small business. Keep in mind that during periods of low unemployment, the candidate you’re considering could be interviewing with several other companies. So if you find someone you like, don’t hesitate to make them an offer. Waiting too long could cause you to lose out to the competition. Sweeten the deal. You could make it easier to find and hire new employees by offering them more than the competition. If you can’t afford to increase pay, consider other ways to make the job more attractive. Employees tend to appreciate other things in addition to money — things like a casual dress code, flexible schedules, employee discounts, fun team-building activities, vacation days, etc Encourage employee referrals. Word of mouth is powerful advertising. Establish a referral program that...

  A timeless wonder,  Star Wars  has captivated Americans across generations with  The Mandalorian  being only the latest masterpiece from the series. So it’s only fitting that this new generation of  Star Wars  be incorporated into the new age of gaming, which is exactly what Seagate Technology has done with the release of the new product line of  Star Wars   Mandalorian  Beskar Ingot Drives. Created in collaboration with Lucasfilm, the new line of PC gaming storage devices brings to life the  Star Wars  ‘precious metals’ aesthetic. The special edition  Star Wars Mandalorian  galaxy designs will be available in Seagate’s FireCuda lineup of products including the M.2 NVMe, 2.5-inch SATA, and external HDD formats. Each drive is designed to look like an ingot of Beskar, a unique alloy used in the show to make the finest Mandalorian Armor. The drives also include the prominent Imperial stamp to give it the most...

  There has been an increase in online retailing due to the pandemic and, as a result, same-day delivery and BOPIS retail offerings such as curbside and in-store pickups have become the new normal and permanent services for businesses. With the holiday season is fast approaching, companies are preparing for the increase in online retailing by improving their “buy online, pick up in-store” services, also known as BOPIS. Office To make shopping easier and more convenient for its customers, Office Depot has announced the launch of its 20 minute Pickup Promise at all Office Depot and Office Max locations nationwide. This means that the retailer is guaranteeing that any qualifying online orders will be ready for pickup within 20 minutes after a customer orders online. Shoppers can access this service by placing a qualifying order online at officedepot.com or via the Office Depot mobile app and selecting “In-Store or Curbside Pickup” at checkout at least one hour befor...

  Does your livelihood revolve around Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting and the occasional virtual presentation? Well, if it does, don’t let it be a drag. Show up prepared to perform at your best with the exciting new Epson 880X 3LCD 1080p smart portable projector . Work isn’t just contained in the office, and this new portable projector allows you to take the professional experience with you from the lake house to the hotel or any other possible setting where hybrid work can find you. “As the dynamics of work environments continue to shift, it’s important that business professionals have the proper tools to set them up for success in any space,” said Kenny Tang, product manager, projectors, Epson America, Inc. in the press release, “The demand for bigger displays has continued throughout the pandemic for both business and home entertainment. The 880X smart projector is ideal for video conferencing and presentations with the added versatility to transform spaces into entertainment hu...

After 73 years in business spanning three generations, Orsini’s , among appliance retailers , has quite the rich history behind it, and one that continues today through the founders’ grandson, PJ Orsini. Orsini says his grandparents opened up the appliance shop in 1948 in Martinsburg, W.Va., and Orsini’s quickly became a staple of the Eastern Panhandle. His father and uncle took over the family business in the ’90s, heading up appliance sales, appliance services, and appliance installation until they decided it was time to retire and usher in the next generation. When it was PJ’s turn to take charge of the decades-old appliance retailer in 2016, one of his first orders of business was to move Orsini’s to a location that better fit current needs. The original location was just 2,400 square feet, and despite any nostalgia tied to Orsini’s first home, the business was quickly outgrowing its confines. In 2019, Orsini’s relocated to an 18,000-square-foot location with an 8,200-square-foot s...

During an online event yesterday, Microsoft unveiled the latest generation of Surface tablets, laptops, and accessories. The company’s EVP & Chief Product Officer, Panos Panay, introduced eight new devices, all of which will be released in October, and they look promising. The list of Microsoft Surface products that were shown at the event includes the Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse ($24.99), the Surface Laptop Studio ($1,599.99), the Surface Go 3 ($399.99), the Surface Duo 2 ($1,499.99), the Surface Pro 8 ($1,099.99), and the Surface Slim Pen 2 ($129.99). Microsoft also made it a goal to be inclusive with its product design, thanks to a new kit that helps people with disabilities more easily use any of the Surface devices. The Surface Adaptive Kit, which is due out later this year, contains raised stickers, port labels, a lanyard tab, and keycaps to help people with vision impairment distinguish the different keys on their keyboard. Microsoft introduced the second-generation, Andro...

How To Solve Consumer Problems With Augmented Reality - Dealerscope Five years ago, augmented reality (AR) entered the mainstream via phone-based applications. Despite mainstream hits such as Pokemon Go, which was a rudimentary workaround compared to today’s implementations, AR in general struggled with slow adoption and education hurdles. Even as the early hype subsided, retailers looked for practical use cases for AR, realizing that it had the potential to increase sales conversion by enabling consumers to see how a product or experience — furniture, clothing, consumer electronics — would look in the context of a home or other real-world setting.

  Nothing is more soothing than natural light. The calming green glow of sunlight as it passes through newly budded leaves on a spring day. The fiery pink, orange, and yellow rays of a fresh sunrise burning their way across the sky are magnificent, yet awe-inspiring. Natural settings such as these provided the inspiration for BioLite’s new AlpenGlow camp lantern series.  “It’s right there in the name: we were inspired by those breathtaking color blends you catch at daybreak or moments like the Northern Lights,” said BioLite CEO Jonathan Cedar via press release, “with our design, users can select colors to match their mood – lighting plays a huge role in creating a sense of space and place and the AlpenGlow will help you feel at home, whether it’s the backyard or the backcountry.” The USB rechargeable AlpenGlow lanterns provide more than seven light modes utilizing ChromaReal LED Technology, which emits broad-spectrum light for daylight-quality illuminatio...

  Unsurprisingly, stay-at-home digital device sales across the world grew in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. The global community as a whole spent more time inside and consistently sought ways to entertain itself from home. The pandemic provided the ideal conditions for a global gaming sales boom , as people sought to disconnect from their immediate reality and socialize with friends online. Data from a study conducted by Growth from Knowledge (GfK) , a market research firm specializing in data collection for the consumer electronics field, shows that the rise in sales of gaming-related hardware consistently outdid the elevated performances of non-gaming hardware across the globe.  GfK’s new in-depth report shows figures from the international gaming industry not including the United States, but it parallels sales trends stateside as well. Both US and global sales of gaming hardware and accessories have grown at exorbitant rates as a result of the pandemic....

  Five years ago, augmented reality (AR) entered the mainstream via phone-based applications. Despite mainstream hits such as Pokemon Go, which was a rudimentary workaround compared to today’s implementations, AR in general struggled with slow adoption and education hurdles. Even as the early hype subsided, retailers looked for practical use cases for AR, realizing that it had the potential to increase sales conversion by enabling consumers to see how a product or experience — furniture, clothing, consumer electronics — would look in the context of a home or other real-world setting. Today, we’re at the beginning of a new golden age of technology. AR, AI, Edge Computing, 5G — it’s all converging. Amid rapid changes, the key to integrating technology into retail in ways that drive sales is to focus on constants. Trends come and go, but the biggest consumer problems remain constant. The AR industry’s value proposition also remains constant: We help people see thi...

  One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to social media is that, in order to achieve your brand’s full potential, you need to be active everywhere, all the time. As new social media platforms pop up on what feels like a yearly basis, brands are left questioning whether they should create an account to capitalize on new territory. But without taking a hard look at a few key factors, seeking to be omnipresent on social media can actually be one of the biggest recipes for failure. At Social Media Week New York earlier this year, Falcon.io’s senior strategist, Casper Vahlgren, referenced Reebok’s 2012 Facebook strategy as an example of how easily brands can go overboard with the number of accounts they have. Almost a decade ago, the footwear and clothing company had a whopping 616 Facebook pages under its brand name. Not only was this approach putting a strain on the social team in charge of these accounts, but it was also confusing for consumers as well....

  This week, the CE industry mourns the loss of one of our own. Jeff Caton, CEO of High-Tech Networks, passed away unexpectedly at his home in Norris, Tennessee on Saturday, July 31st. Jeff was 62 years of age.    Jeff’s 43 years in the consumer electronics business began when he was 19 with a job at Harvey’s Warehouse in Knoxville, Tennessee. Over the next few decades, Jeff worked his way up to becoming retail store manager before joining Teal Marketing, where he worked in the sales department in a manufacturer’s representative role. Jeff branched out and created his own rep company, Network Sales and Marketing, which eventually merged with High-Tech Network in 2005.  “Jeff will be sorely missed by our team and the AV community in the Southeast,” said Dave Robinette, President of High-Tech Network, in the company’s press release. “His leadership, sense of humor and big personality left a positive impact with everyone who worked with him. Hi...

  SUMMARY   •  Distributors have acted adroitly through the yearlong pandemic, swiftly tailoring programs to get dealers up to speed in digital, and in streamlining their just-in-time delivery processes.   •  An especially challenging issue for dealers early on was securing adequate inventory to meet exceedingly high demand for certain categories such as networking products, replacement appliances and large-screen TVs – but distributor tools that aided dealers in accurate forecasting and product cycle planning proved to be invaluable resources .  • Having successfully adjusted to the “new normal,” distributors say they foresee business eventually settling down in the post-COVID period to a combination hybrid digital and in-person model – and add that they now have the resources in place to manage all aspects of it, moving forward. Dealerscope: What will be the most salient features of your product and program presentations movin...