A silver lining in this rough market.

Visit StreetInsider.com at http://www.streetinsider.com/news.php?st=p&id=4262995 for the full story.

The malls are toast, but so are the virtual ones.

Market-lagging returns could be written in these two stars.

Visit StreetInsider.com at http://www.streetinsider.com/news.php?st=p&id=4255999 for the full story.

In the current environment, even a tech stock can be very different from one to another. An interesting way to look at things is through Priceline.com(PCLN) and Blue Nile.com (NILE). You might have heard of both but in case I will give you a brief description. Priceline.com is a travel comparison website that offers the possibility [...]

Welcome to the December 15, 2008 edition of Festival of Stocks. The Festival of Stocks is a blog carnival dedicated to highlighting bloggers best posts on stock market related topics. Fat Pitch Financials is the actual birth place of this online weekly event, so it is always a special occassion when I get the chance to [...]

Bargain hunters may be tempted to take a look at Blue Nile, Inc. (NILE) which is down roughly 75% from last years high.  After all, the company has no debt and posted third quarter profits as opposed to many retailers which showed losses.  The company actually saw sales come in near the same levels as [...]

Filed under: Consumer experience, Internet, eBay (EBAY), Amazon.com (AMZN), Marketing and advertising, Black Friday

If you thought Black Friday was just for brick-and-mortar retail, think again. The official start of the online shopping rush is the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday (Cyber Monday is its name), but don't think that companies like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Blue Nile (NASDAQ: NILE) are going to wait that long. They're in the game now. And they want your attention. More importantly, they want you to use the virtual shopping carts at their respective sites early and often. It's really crucial this year, because the economy stinks, and growth in spending isn't going to be great.

According to CNBC, Amazon's strategy is to use very low prices as a way of stopping competitors like eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) dead in their electronic tracks. This Christmas season, retailers, whether online or not, may find themselves in a no-win situation. They have to lower prices to encourage people to shop. But quality growth in top-line sales is questionable. When managements see the bad news flow about the global recession, they become scared and want to become even more aggressive in terms of pricing. The strategy may work and it may not. It's a vicious circle. Don't get me wrong, the retail industry faces this problem every year at this time, but you have to agree that the current economic cycle is particularly noxious. It's times like these, however, when retailers should want to offer more than just a value proposition. They should want to offer a differentiated shopping experience, a better selection of items. They should strive to offer up a brand image that makes you want to hit their inventories first. They need to step away from trying to undercut all their competitors and instead figure out how to stock the right merchandise in the right amounts. And when it comes to a business like Amazon, I think there's great opportunity to go beyond low-pricing strategies. Quite frankly, I don't care whether Amazon has the lowest prices or not. I find it easier to do some of my holiday shopping on the site. It saves me time during this busy season, I trust the security of the platform, and I know that the supply chain is efficient and reliable. And I definitely think of Amazon first when looking to do online shopping because of its valuable brand equity.

Continue reading Will Amazon win with its pricing strategy?

Will Amazon win with its pricing strategy? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Banks and credit card processors have long predicted that digital money would eventually supplant currency as the primary medium of exchange. Of couse, that was before the credit bubble burst and people realized that the modern day variant made it way too easy to spend more than you could afford. With ancient habits like saving for a rainy day coming back into vogue, is it all that surprising that others are as well? The Associated Press gives us the details in "More Customers Resume Using Old-Fashioned Cash" Cash or credit? For more Americans, who have already maxed out their credit cards or are just trying to manage their spending better in the tough economy, the answer is increasingly the old-fashioned[More...]

Joseph Hargett takes a look back at news that drove the major market indices today.

Tom Dorsey and Tammy DeRosier Ask Are You Keeping Up with Inflation?