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Posted on September 10th, 2007 by Genio
Technology is playing a very important role in retailing, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a larger retailer or a small retailer. You have to go after the best technology.
It stands to reason that, if retailers want to keep up with the changing technology which many of their competitors are moving toward, they cannot afford to skimp on technology. Hence, to stay competitive in the industry, a retailer needs to invest in software to manage inventory, pricing, sales, people, and other forefront operations.
In today’s retail industry, technology allows store owners to automate like never before. The basics for a retailer to improve profit margins are:
* Inventory management
* Vendor management
* Employee management
Dan Jablons, VP Operations at One Step Retail Solutions says, “Hardware technology, like handheld devices for inventory, just validates the good things of a point of sale system. However a retailer has to be focused on having the right merchandise at the right place and at the right time. They have to use the system to evaluate the performance of merchandise in their stores so that they can do a better job partnering with their vendors. And they need to develop statistical reports to help manage employees so that they perform the tasks and functions that management expects them to do.”
Increasingly, technology is seeping into every aspect of retailing. Starting with point of sale with payment options and adding a portable scanner or PDA, then throwing in hardware for security are among the growing needs for a retailer. But these are not what a retailer should focus on alone.
No one is going to win a noble prize for ringing up a sale. Any point of sale product can do that. The important piece of technology in any point of sale product is its ability to produce meaningful, actionable reports that help the owner or manager improve the business,” Jablons says further.
The key goal for retailers is better sales forecasts and better inventory control. Therefore, knowing where your profits are coming from is one way technology will help a retailer manage their business better. It allows them to generate sales forecasts and make better business decisions overall.
Kevin McAdam, Director of Sales at One Step Retail Solutions, points out, “Without technology, the competition will destroy you. If you just model the most successful retailer, Sam Walton (WalMart founder), who originally thought he couldn’t get past nine stores, technology was the only way he did it.”
McAdam further stated, “One of the ways to use technology to boost profits is knowing where you are making money. I was working with a retailer with five stores, and he had vendors come to his stores to tell the him what his stores needed, and the owner would buy it. He had no idea of the profit margins on what he purchased, so his sales were high but his profit margin wasn’t. So, technology can give you a quick way to know not just what you’re selling but where you are making your money.”
Having the right technology alone may not be enough it seems. According to Jablons, another factor comes into play and carries a massive role in helping retailers succeed, and that is retail consultants.
Jablons believes that a good retail consulting company will make all the difference for a retailer. He states, “Lots of companies have the technology readily available to them through many outlets. The thing I spent a lot of time developing at One Step Retail Solutions is a team of consultants with retail backgrounds. So, they’re not just geeks working on a particular application; they are consultants with retail backgrounds who know and understand retail operations and merchandising.”
“That’s different than a guy who’s just going to tell you what buttons to push. They know the end goal and they visualize that with the retailer to get them there.
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Filed under: Business & Retailers
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Posted on September 10th, 2007 by US Olive
Television would probably be the most entertaining invention yet. It is a simple box of pure leisure, where one can just sit back, eat chips, and watch all day long. Anyone can watch TV, since it offers a lot of entertaining shows, full length movies, current news, cartoons, among many others. These programs are being watched by people around the world all day all night, so TV shows are being played nonstop. Such TV programs are being broad casted by several TV networks, be it international or local. These shows offer a lot of topics relating to life, women, health, fashion, travel, cooking, adventure, sports, and the like.
Nowadays, television networks are becoming more realistic in creating television shows for the general viewing public. It seems that people now are entertained by seeing other ordinary people doing extraordinary stuff on air! For the past few years, reality shows has been a hit among viewers around the world. Reality shows are these one hour long programs wherein one can watch several contestants in an unscripted situation battling for something, or showing actual events featuring ordinary people as the cast. There are several classifications under reality shows. TV networks came up with documentary style programs, elimination or game shows, makeovers or self-improvement, renovation, hoaxes, hidden cameras, talk shows, and dating shows.
In watching these seemingly tireless programs, we often see new faces in TV. Since ordinary people are commonly participating in these reality shows, these people are not too comfortable with the camera. More often than not, viewers can get a glimpse of their anxiety as they compete with the other contestants. An example of such would be The Amazing Race. This show is focused on a set of contestants that travels around the world and racing each other in beating several clues that would bring them closer to the monetary prize. Anxiety is seen as they try hard in running through airports, getting flight schedules, understanding a different language, and beating all the other contestants. This kind of scenario makes the show more realistic, since showing anxiety is not a common thing for actors, and that this somehow connects us to being somewhat real.
For a more adventurous show, we watch the popular reality show Fear Factor. Here we see a group of contestants that compete each other by doing something that can be very scary for some, but fairly easy for others. Contestants in this show face fear and anxiety in ways no one can imagine. Eating live insects, jumping off a helicopter roving around three hundred feet in the air, getting locked in a coffin with snakes are just a few of the scariest antics they have. By showing fear and anxiety in the show, it boosts its popularity among viewers, and at the same time makes sense of the whole concept itself.
Entertainment is really evolving into a totally different era. Being real in television is already considered as enjoyment for other people. A sense of fear and anxiety can really hype up the viewing audience. By watching reality shows such as these, it would give us the impression of what’s real and what’s not. Popcorn, anyone?
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Filed under: Sports & Entertainment
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Posted on September 10th, 2007 by Shamim
Many times, you may need to connect more than one computer to a single printer. This can happen either in the case of home based businesses with various groups or even in regular offices with many users involved.
Tips to connect 2 computers to one printer While going about connecting 2 computers to one printer, you need to follow a few steps to ensure the process is smooth and hassle-free. Here we outline some of these basic steps.
Connection: To be able to connect both computers to a single printer you need to setup printer on ‘client’ PC:
Connect printer to ‘client’ PC and install it. This way all required software and drivers are installed.
Reconnect to ‘host’ PC
Select ‘Properties’ by right clicking
Select ’shared’
In ‘client’ PC:
Select ‘My Network Places’ or ‘Network Neighborhood’
Printer appears as ’shared’
Double click on the printer to install it
The same printer is now installed twice - as local and network printer
If always using network printer, set it as ‘default’
Set up a LAN: To be able to perform a 2 pc 1 printer connection, you first need to set up a LAN or a Local Area Network. To do this, follow these instructions:
You could either use a network adapter in your home office OR
To view the status of the network connection, you need to
Double click on Network Connections
Right click on the particular LAN
Select Status option
You could also right click on the LAN, click on Properties and then select the ‘Show icon in taskbar notification area when connected’ checkbox. This will enable you to automatically view the status in the taskbar area
Get a printer switch: Printer switches enable you to connect 2 computers to one printer. They come in a variety of types such as auto printer switch and parallel printer switch. There are several vendors available online who provide these switches at good discounts.
Crossover cable: You can easily get a crossover cable from your local computer store to connect your computers to your printer. After that you can network and open the desired printer and enable it to be shared between both computers.
Print server: A print server enables you to print simultaneously from two computers at the same time. However you need to ensure you have a router (which will act as a DHCP server). You also need to make sure that it’s not a multifunctional printer you’re working with since most print servers are not able to work with such kinds of printers. In case you do not have a router, you could purchase a PSUS4 print server, then assign static IP on the network cards and print server. No network ports present: In case there are no network ports present, then you can use either USB or parallel port adapters for your purpose.
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Filed under: Computers & Internet
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Posted on September 10th, 2007 by Kinky star
Cheap Jewelry When you are out hunting in garage sales and looking for cheap jewelry, sometimes you can find a great deal on really nice jewelry. I found a beautiful ankle bracelet one garage sale and a diamond pendantat another! They were selling the diamond pendant for $2.00 and . 50 for the ankle bracelet! With a little jewelry cleaner, I was able to shine up both pieces of jewelry for almost nothing. Nice jewelry is hard to find at a good bargain. So many department stores sell jewelry for fairly good deals, but often there is so much of a mark-up it costs you far more than the jewelry is worth. Many times a store will say that it is half off, when really they are advertising it at a high rate to begin with and when they “reduce” the price, you are actually seeing the price that the piece should go for in the first place. Other great places to find good jewelry bargains is while travelling. Sure the price of the airfare is expensive, but if you are going there in the first place, while you are there, you can find so many great deals. Like Mexico, for instance, you can find incredible deals on silver link bracelet,turquoise jewelry and toe rings that you will have a hard time finding anywhere else. In Thailand, you could find great deals on jade, diamonds, rubies and sapphires. You will pay exponentially more money for any of those stones if you were to purchase them in the states or Canada. Jewelry cleaner comes in many styles. Some cleaner is made of a liquid, slippery soap solution with a brush that shines up jewelry nicely. Other cleaners are made of a paste material that is smoothed onto the jewelry and then is rubbed off with a rag, like a polish. This type of polish is used for gold or silver pieces. Jewelry you buy as a gift for someone doesn’t have to break your bank. My sister gave all of her bridesmaids jewelry that she made herself. They were made with crystals that she got wholesale through an online distributor. Then she bought colored ribbon to match the bridesmaid dresses. When the bridesmaids walked down the aisle to the alter, their necklaces glimmered and shown in the lights like they were made of diamonds. Other ways to find affordable jewelry is to find it online. There are auction houses like Ebay, but sometimes they provide the worst quality products because the rest of the world is flooding the system with a massive variety of goods. Quality online jewelry places do exist online. You just have to find them. Some of them offer gold and silver, like the gold diamond pendant found at the garage sale, only better, because it’s new and the quality is guaranteed. If you are lucky, you will find that the online store you are shopping at also has a regular store that you can walk into and physically hold and try on the selections. Buying jewelry doesn’t need to be a bank busting affair. A little creativity, bargain shopping and a little jewelry cleanercan take a simple piece into a fabulous piece!
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Filed under: Antiques & Jewelry
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Posted on September 10th, 2007 by ohn Luke
Auctions have been around for a long period of time and they are steadily gaining in popularity as the way to buy and sell property effectively over the Internet. The majority of people attending a Alaska Real Estate Auction are the ones building up a property portfolio but there are also many people seeking out their dream house.
The online Alaska Real Estate Auction provides a new and unique system that allows prospective buyers to view properties and bid online for any property offered. There are lot of advantages to an Alaska Real Estate Auction among which are included: feasibility, better prices and quick sales. With online auctions, you can purchase the desired property from the comfort of your own home. Also, you can buy properties below market value and make a fast sale as everybody interacts over the Internet.
The online Alaska Real Estate Auction opens up a favorable condition for the buyer and it gives him the opportunity to search for his needs and select the best option. For the seller, it gives a chance for many sales channels and generate interest in his property.
Real estate differs from one state to the next. When buying real estate in Alaska you should know the laws and rules that will effect you. Some things, however, are universal and apply to anyone buying real estate anywhere. These things are also important to know before getting into a real estate transaction.
Understanding the rules of a Alaska Real Estate Auction is vital to winning the bid and saving some money. Sellers should also play their part and answer any given questions correctly and truthfully. In their answers, it is important to not give long descriptions; on the contrary, they should be short and concise.
In the state of Alaska, you will find a number of auctions take place annually and the owners of the property are able to sell their property at much higher price on some of the occasions. Therefore if you think that your property is at the prime location in one of the town or city or even in rural area, you can take help of one of the auctioneers in Alaska and offer the property for sale. Most of the time Alaska real estate auctions are able to attract large number of bidders and you can expect the best price of real estate in one of the auction.
There are two relationships between buyers and agents in Alaska, Buyers Agents and Transactional Brokers. A buyers agent is a representative of the buyer. The buyers agent is required to look for the best interests of the buyer. They must tell the buyers everything about the real estate transaction and follow any direction of the buyer. A transactional buyer does not represent the buyer. They are there to sell real estate. They are not required to tell the buyer everything about the transaction.
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Filed under: Auction
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