Colorado Springs Retail Briefs: November 2, 2007

If you have a Verizon Wireless cell phone with Mobile Web 2.0, you now have added shopping capabilities. Boulder-based mShopper, a mobile shopping service, has teamed with Verizon Wireless to allow customers to compare prices, browse and buy from their cell phones.

More than 9.2 million products are available at the touch of a button on your phone's Web browser at shop.mshopper.com.

Online merchants range from eLuxury to Shoes.com. mShopper lets Verizon Wireless customers browse by category and by merchant. A "hot specials" feature allows subscribers to receive premium discounts and special offers from mShopper partner merchants.

For a $5 monthly access charge, customers can add Mobile Web 2.0 to their handsets at any time by launching the browser in the phone, selecting "subscribe" and accepting the terms and conditions. Most mShopper features are free with a Mobile Web 2.0 monthly subscription.

Free shipping for the holidays

Many retailers will be offering free shipping this holiday season -- with conditions.

The conditions, of course, mean customers must purchase a certain item or a certain number or dollar amount of merchandise before receiving the offer. According to results of the 2007 eHoliday Study, conducted by BizRate Research for Shop.org and Shopzilla, 78.6 percent of retailers plan to offer some form of free shipping service.

Retailers also will use free shipping upgrades (60.4 percent), discounted shipping (53.5 percent) and free shipping without conditions (41.4 percent) to drive sales.

Not surprisingly, consumers overwhelmingly favor free shipping promotions, with almost two-thirds of online shoppers (61.2 percent) admitting that free shipping without conditions is one of the promotions they would most like to see this holiday season.

"Free shipping offers drive online sales more than any other promotion, which is why they remain popular with retailers," said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. "Unfortunately, free shipping is not free for retailers. Merchants can minimize the financial impact of these promotions by carefully analyzing the conditions required for their customers to receive free shipping."

In addition to offering free shipping promotions, retailers will use a variety of other marketing techniques to increase sales. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) will offer online-only sales this year, up from 59 percent just two years ago. Many companies also will offer early shopper discounts (35 percent), repeat buyer discounts (37 percent) and "refer a friend" promotions (55.6 percent).

Even though retailers will be featuring plenty of bells and whistles on their Web sites this holiday season, consumers insist that getting the basics right still matters most. The most important factor for online shoppers is that Web sites provide good value for the money, which received an average 4.52 rating on a scale of 5. Also, shoppers said that clear product descriptions (4.37), a merchant's reputation (4.31) and guaranteed on-time delivery (4.28) were important features when deciding where to buy.

Customers' top reasons for shopping online instead of in stores is the ability to shop at any time of day (58.5 percent), not wanting to fight crowds (43.8 percent) and the general convenience of shopping on the Internet (38.7 percent).

Shoppers also said they like the ability to compare prices online (36.2 percent) and that items are often easier to find (29.9 percent).

Wendy's to open restaurants in Malaysia

Wendy's International and Berjaya Corp. Berhad have signed a development agreement to build Wendy's restaurants in Malaysia.

Berjaya, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nadi Klasik Sdn Bhd, plans to open the first of these restaurants in Kuala Lumpur later this year, and will continue development in the Klang Valley region and other cities during the next 10 years.

The franchisee expects to open more than 70 Wendy's restaurants in Malaysia.

Berjaya has extensive experience in developing and managing quick service restaurants in Malaysia. It operates the Starbucks and Kenny Rogers Roasters franchises there, as well as Borders Books stores.

"We are taking a disciplined approach to growing our international business, preparing our support infrastructure, and conducting detailed market analyses before expanding into new markets," said James C. Hartenstein, Wendy's senior vice president, international.

Wendy's has established an office in Hong Kong to serve franchise partners, suppliers and staff throughout the region, and to prepare for expansion into new markets. Wendy's opened its first restaurant in Asia during 1980 and has about 150 restaurants in the Asia Pacific region.

Joan Johnson covers retail for the Colorado Springs Business Journal.

Copyright 2007 Dolan Media Newswires
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.