By Crystal Silvas

Bald Guys Rock, LLC, which can be found at www.baldguysrock.com, is a fun but inspirational company whose main goal is to empower the bald and the beautiful. Their core values encourage natural beauty in all of its stripped-down glory, adopting a minimalist but optimistic view of the world. We should embrace who we are regardless of our outward appearances. We shouldn’t hide our perceived flaws from the world; we should flaunt them. According to the company’s creator, “It’s about not comparing ourselves to others, but rather looking within to see what strengths we have that we can offer the world…starting with a shiny bald (or balding) head.”

I found the company’s Website to be quite personable with an exceptionally warm feel to it. Customer service is obviously very important to them. The site was simple to navigate and it had a great deal of personality. I particularly enjoyed the “Bald Story of the Month” section where users can submit their own stories with the chance of winning free merchandise and the opportunity to be featured on the site for an entire month.

Presented by Mr. Nir Arie

A big sister company to 1 Fashion Clothing Inc., its headquarter is right at the heart of the prestigious Garment District in downtown Los Angeles, California. Big Deal 4 U, a wholesaler of women’s stylish clothing and accessories, is frequented by smart shoppers from all over the world for its known rock bottom prices.
Wholesale clothing inspected and approved for quality and style without having to sacrifice comfort.

Big Deal 4 U obsessively thrives to please their valued customers by offering a wide array of wholesale women’s clothing from decent to tasteful undergarments, to either rugged, sporty, trendy, casual, sophisticated, classy or elegant attire. Its huge inventory of wholesale apparel includes, but is not limited to, dresses, coordinates and separates, tops, halter tops, T-shirts, denim jeans and jackets, pants, capris and bermudas ( denim or non-denim), skirts and mini-skirts ( denim or non-denim ), sportswears, pajamas, lingerie and sweaters. Moreover, we top ourselves by creating a special section on the net for all clearance items for an even lower price.

By Crystal Silvas

With forty years of experience, Hayes Specialties Corporation is a leader in the Direct Import industry. With such a vast selection of merchandise they are able to suit the needs of just about any kind of business. One of their specialties is wholesale toys. They are one of the largest importers of toys and other novelties in the United States, and they pride themselves on discovering hot new items light-years ahead of the competition.

One of their newest products, which made its debut at the ASD/AMD Trade Show in Vegas earlier this month, is the exciting new Fountain Duck. Haye’s Fountain Duck is a brand new spin on the conventional rubber ducky. Everyone knows what a rubber duck is; it was immortalized by Sesame Street’s Ernie in the 1970 smash hit “Rubber Ducky”. But Haye’s new Fountain Duck isn’t the rubber duck you and I grew up with.

By Crystal Silvas

With over twelve years of experience under their belts, CEO Jerry Phlippeau and VP Joe Harzheim really knew what they were doing when they created Flipo Group USA, a manufacturer, distributor and importer of unique and original consumer goods. With products like flameless candles, pet blinkers, and scrolling belt buckles, your virtual tour through Flipo.com will be one you won’t soon forget, and neither will your customers if you take my advice and add some of their products to your inventory.

Flipo’s comprehensive Website, which can be found at www.Flipo.com, includes a dozen different categories of wholesale merchandise including but not limited to Christmas items, home accents, pens, jewelry, pet products, novelties and more. The creative geniuses at Flipo take average products (e.g. pens) and reinvent them into fresh, newfangled fun. One of their hottest and most popular products is their line of Fuze jewelry, a creative take on gem necklaces. These quartz-derived necklaces feature hand-picked, hand-polished gems from the Far East which radiate soft, incandescent light in a soothing array of brilliant colors. A few of Fuze’s famous fans include such celebrities as Jennifer Garner, Britney Spears and Jennifer Coolidge.

By Crystal Silvas

With the important holiday selling season looming just around the proverbial corner and a series of highly publicized toy recalls in the not-so-distant past, several multichannel toy merchants are re-evaluating the product mix, making toy-testing information available on their Websites or adjusting their search marketing strategies with a focus on making consumers feel safer about buying toys.

Some toy retailers generate almost half of their business between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. This year, however, many are nervously waiting to see if the recent deluge of Chinese product recalls will affect their sales.

While not all of the recalls were related to toys, the sheer number of recalls has been unprecedented and the fear is that some consumers may start putting away their wallets as soon as they see the words, “Made in China.” If so, this could hit the toy industry especially hard since approximately 85% of all toys available in the United States are made in China.

By Crystal Silvas

With warehouses in both the U.S. and Canada, Symak Sales Co. Inc. has been putting customers first for over six decades, providing fast and efficient service to customers allover North America. With a superabundance of over 6,000 different products, orders are shipped with over a 98% completion rate with virtually no back-orders. Primarily a dollar store supplier, they offer a vast selection of quality discount wholesale merchandise with products like kitchen gadgets, housewares, pet accessories, toys, sewing materials, cosmetics, medical supplies and much, much more.

Their dollar store wholesale and distribution Website can be found at www.Symaksales.com where you will be redirected to their newly revamped site. The new site features both quick and advanced internal search options so that anyone can locate any of their products in a snap. The site is simple to navigate. Their products can also be browsed by category, and their “Symak News” center features brand new products, promotions and upcoming events, e.g. the New York ASD/AMD Trade Show they’ll be attending from September 8-11th.

By Crystal Silvas

The folks over at SilverandCZ.com have been supplying quality stones to manufacturers for over twenty years and expanded into the finished jewelry business about seven years ago when they began supplying to wholesalers and distributors. Their Website was launched about three years ago and was redone this year to sell to stand alone jewelry stores, gift shops and flea marketers. Specializing in wholesale sterling silver jewelry, this New York based company also boasts a vast assortment of brilliant cubic zirconia jewelry.

Their recently refurbished site, which can be found at SilverandCZ.com, is easily navigable and features site maps that allow customers to shop by category or by collection. When it comes to high-quality, attractive wholesale sterling silver jewelry, SilverandCZ truly has it all; their marvelous collection includes bracelets, chains, necklaces, earrings, pendants, rings and stunning jewelry sets.

By Mike Jennings, GENCO Marketplace

Your business depends on being able to source quality products from wholesale liquidators at a good price. There are great deals to be had, but it helps to be an informed buyer. Here are some rules to follow:

#1 – Source from stable, financially sound companies
There are few barriers to entry in the wholesale liquidation industry. Consequently, you encounter the rare company that wants to turn a quick profit. When evaluating sources of supply, look for companies with a track record of ethical behavior and a long-term strategy that depends on repeat business from happy customers. As the saying goes, “Adversity teaches us who our true friends are.” If problems arise – let’s say the lot you receive does not match the manifest — you want a partner that will stand behind transactions with honesty and integrity, not one who suddenly stops answering his phone.

By Marie Marra

Actress Reese Witherspoon, in her “Legally Blonde” film role as Southern California fashion maven turned Bostonian and Harvard Law student, outlined the Apparel Buyer’s Challenge:

“Whoever said ‘peach’ is the new ‘pink’ was truly deranged.”

To buyers of women’s, men’s and youth apparel, forecasting color trends two or three seasons ahead can seem like a random turn of the roulette wheel. Fortunately, we improve our bets by watching Color Trend Forecasters, and by working the patterns that emerge from major trade shows and apparel industry insiders. Apologies to “Legally Blonde,” but buying color lots for next seasons need not be a bad deranged bet.

Cite the Color Authorities. The Color Association claims to be the oldest color forecasting service in the U.S., issuing color reports since 1915. Because its color trend predictions influence the front-end of the production chain — from textile manufacture and fiber arts to fashionable car colors — CAUS looks 12-to-20 months ahead. (Yes, that’s a geologic eon in e-commerce

By Marie Marra

In the ongoing commerce saga of Bricks Vs. Clicks and Online Auctions, how you source your inventory is becoming a point of friction, especially in the category of accessories, such as jewelry and handbags.

“eBay is like a modern-day yard sale,” noted John Devlin, an attorney representing Big Box retailers Home Depot, Nike and Nordstrom. Attorney Devlin, in “Online Resellers Worrying Some Retailers” by Elaine Hughes (August 7, 2007 USA Today via NewsFactor.com), concluded that retailers can do little to prevent their products from being resold on Internet auctions.

Little, except ban amateurs from the playing field. Bricks-and-mortar retail brand managers are pushing back, imposing limits on the number of Sale-Priced Designer Handbags or Same-Color Men’s Shirts they will let a retail customer purchase.

By Marie Marra

One reason to allocate more marketing budget on customer retention, as opposed to customer acquisition, is simply spelled ROI (Return on Investment) or ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend):

It costs 10 times more to find a new customer than it does
to keep a present customer satisfied.

That’s from Nadjii Tehrani, a customer relations management specialist with Customer Inter@ction Solutions.

That 10-times factor at the marketing bottom-line is the savvy manager’s motivation to value customer care through personalized communications. CRM Tehrani suggests simple, often non-tech personalization strategies:

• Lesson learned from successful telemarketing — Tailor the message and response to an audience of one, rather than using one-script-fits-all replies. This, Tehrani notes, is the definition of database marketing.

• Database marketing – A form of “mass customization” that, although it sounds like a contradiction, simply means personalizing messages to show value or benefits to the individual.

By Marie Marra

School-aged children and parents are doing their annual back-to-school rituals:

 Subject notebooks, pencils, pens and folders: Check.
 List clothes and shoes that still fit; Fill in gaps with new sale-priced clothes: Check.
 Replace last year’s tired lunch box: Check.
 Find the latest knapsack, book bag, backpack, messenger bag, over-sized purse: Not Yet.

Off-price, overstock and surplus resellers of school supplies and carry-alls are past the buying season for this academic year. Then, maybe this is the year of repeat shoppers.

All students need to tote homework, books and papers. Teen girls look for a little extra style and space for personal care items. Everyone wants to be packing the “it” look.

The opportunity here is that this Bag Business isn’t settled yet in the schoolyard.

OFF-PRICE SPECIALIST SHOW
August 24-28
Sands Expo & Convention Center
Las Vegas
The largest Off-Price Apparel Show in the Industry.

Attention all apparel retailers: Mark your calendars! The Off-Price Specialist Show is the premiere show for off-price apparel and accessories, and it’s happening August 24-28 at the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas. The wholesalers and jobbers at the show carry men’s, women’s, and children’s apparel 20-70% below the original manufacturer’s wholesale price.

This August, complete your fashion week with these new additions to the show:

• T.O.P.S. (The very best of the Off-Price Specialist Show) will highlight fashions from around the show floor.
• “The Oasis”, the newly remodeled buyers lounge, will provide a relaxing atmosphere for all buyers, as well as feature the “What’s Hot in Off-Price” fashion slideshow.

It’s extremely important that the major media channels work together to promote their products and services, especially when it comes to trade show attendance. Trade shows can serve as great communications tools fostering awareness of one’s brand and also for the purposes of networking. All too often media heavyweights view each other as competitors when in fact they should be networking and looking at one another as partners. When it comes down to it, different media channels provide different services to customers, but with similar goals in mind, they’re truly not that different. Their common goal is to create an optimal marketing program that will sell the most product while simultaneously keeping the customers happy. Simple enough, right?