Online retailers are giving the humble cardboard box an extreme makeover, transforming a four-sided receptacle for delivering goods into the new shopping bag.
Out: brown, plain, boring.
In: neon colors, ornate lettering, glossy surfaces and geometric stenciling that looks like modern art.
By trying to replicate the delight and status jolt of in-person shopping — walking around New York with a Bloomingdale’s bag once signaled affluence — online retailers trying to break through the Amazon juggernaut are turning front doorsteps into new branding canvases.
As one box veteran puts it, “Every box tells a story.”
And the story often does not end with box cutters. Recipients post photos, videos and reviews online of the coolest boxes. Some re-purpose their boxes to store makeup, watches or even fishing lures. Others hang boxes on their walls, with dioramas inside.
“You all are going to be horrified,” one commenter wrote in an online discussion on a site that reviews boxes (such a thing really does exist), “but I just recycle them.”
This is the best of times for boxes. For decades, a stagnating economy and shift away from manufacturing flattened sales of corrugated and paperboard boxes. But in 2013, sales rebounded and have kept climbing, thanks to an improving economy and, analysts say, a fundamental shift in shopping habits.
Box sales are growing about 3 percent a year and will rise to nearly $40 billion in 2018, according to Katie Wieser, an analyst with the Freedonia Group, a market research firm. But boxes for e-commerce are growing even faster, at 4 percent. Amazon is thought to be the biggest customer, shipping nearly 5 billion packages a year.
Source: The Washington Post, August 21, 2016
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Alaska Airlines, the carrier that has tested solar-powered passenger ramps and fingerprint identification devices for passengers, is continuing to experiment.
The Seattle-based airline has begun testing an electronic, reusable luggage tag that is linked to a passenger’s Alaska Airlines mobile app.
Here’s how it works: Once you buy a ticket on Alaska and check in using the mobile app, the app asks whether you want to activate your electronic bag tag. When you turn on your electronic tag, the Bluetooth technology in your phone synchs with the tag and displays your flight’s destination on the tag’s tiny screen.
The goal of the tag and previous Alaska experiments is to make air travel more expedient, said Loesje Degroen, Alaska’s customer research and development manager.
Alaska began testing the electronic tag with 60 employees last summer and is now trying the technology with about 50 passengers. Later this year, Degroen said, the carrier plans to expand the test to about 500 passengers.
Some of Alaska’s experiments don’t pan out. Alaska still lets passengers use their fingerprints to access the airline’s five airport lounges, and the solar panels are still powering ramps at airports in San Jose, Palm Springs, Seattle and Portland, Ore.
But a test last summer to let passengers board using only their fingerprints for identification at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport ended without being expanded. Alaska officials would not call the test a failure, saying only that they will think of other ways to use biometrics.
Source: Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2016 -- Hugo Martin
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It seems that no matter where a person shops these days, the retail clerk will ask for an e-mail address and offer a rewards card to keep them coming back.
The vast majority of loyalty programs are free to consumers, but Restoration Hardware home furnishings stores recently joined a growing number of retailers to start charging a fee to get the rewards of shopping loyalty.
For $100 a year, consumers get an RH Grey Card with 25 percent savings in all departments, 10 percent savings on sale merchandise, complimentary interior design services, early access to clearance events and lower interest rates on the RH credit card.
“We’re going to see more of this,” said Dave Brennan, co-director of the University of St. Thomas Institute for Retailing Excellence. “It’s a way to lock in customers and keep them from going elsewhere.”
Shoppers who sign up for loyalty programs make up only 10 percent of a retailer’s traffic but contribute up to 50 percent of its sales, according to Boston-based FTI Consulting. The occasional shopper, on the other hand, makes up 45 percent of the retailer’s traffic and only 5 percent of sales.
It’s especially true at retailers catering to the luxury market, including Restoration Hardware. Affluent shoppers are among the biggest users of rewards programs. Retailers know that they drive shopper’s behavior. The 150,000 people in Neiman Marcus’ InCircle program generate 40 percent of its annual sales.
Barnes & Noble has long charged a $25 annual fee for its rewards program. Amazon.com Inc. in 2014 raised the price of its Prime program, which offers free two-day shipping and access to its video service, to $99 from $69.
But to be effective, a loyalty program has to have perceived value. Customers want to know they aren’t getting the same offers as everyone else. The RH Grey Card makes that clear.
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Source: Star Tribune, March 29, 2016 -- John Ewoldt
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