Congress Could Use a Lesson from America’s Innovators

The compromise spending bill for $1.1 trillion keeps the government open through September, according to CNN. It increases funding to Head Start by $1 billion for early childhood education, which makes sense after its recent low point with the forced budget cuts last year. It increases the paychecks of federal workers and military personnel by 1%. It reduces funding to the IRS and the Environmental Protection Agency. It launches policies aimed at getting more low-risk passengers through security quicker at airports. [I]t has a little bit in it for just about everyone, [b]ut, once again, Congress is kicking the can down the road, because we are going to have this same contentious conversation next fall when this extension expires.

The New York Times broke down the cost of this new budget per each U.S. resident: $259 goes to [the SNAP program], $61 goes to the […] school lunch program, $30 goes for crop insurance, $40 goes to loans and direct payments to farmers, $2,672 covers Social Security, $1,591 covers Medicare, $26 goes to the FBI, and $22 goes to the federal prison system.

These budget impasses remind me of the movie Groundhog Day, where we wake up and repeat the same mistake month after month, year after year. There have got to be some innovative thinkers outside and inside government who can get us out of this rut of repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

One big idea is coming from Ron Unz, according to USA Today. Mr. Unz is a Silicon Valley multimillionaire and registered Republican who is pushing a California proposal to boost the minimum pay rate to $12 an hour. Unz believes that taxpayers, for too long, have been subsidizing low wages, since the government pays for food stamps and other programs these workers utilize. He feels raising the minimum wage to $12 would lift millions of people out of poverty, driving up income and sales tax revenue and, at the same time, saving taxpayers billions of dollars since these workers would no longer qualify for many of the welfare benefits.

Another big idea came out of Chicago under the leadership of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He created the small business center in City Hall last spring to streamline small-business services. The city has reduced the number of business licenses from 117 to 49, which has saved small businesses $700,000 in just the last six months. Chicago is phasing out the Head Tax, a decision that saved small businesses $4.8 million in 2013. This is just an example of how cities can cut through the red tape to not only make its citizens’ lives easier but actually save money.

TOMS is a for-profit company that gives away a pair of shoes to an impoverished child for every pair it sells. Additionally, when TOMS sells a pair of eye wear, part of the profit goes toward helping restore sight to those who need help, and, according to their [web]site, “[H]elping to restore sight restores independence, economic potential and educational opportunity.” They have taken the “giving back” [mission] a step further and, last fall, launched TOMS Marketplace, which gives socially conscious suppliers a platform to sell products that help support causes ranging from education and health to nutrition and clean water.

Most organizations don’t have the resources like the city of Chicago or TOMS to help make a major impact in changing our country or […] federal budget. […] The largest charity in the United States is the United Way, which is a network of 1,800 United Way communities and manages $4.26 billion. […] The second largest is The Salvation Army, which manages $4.08 billion to carry out their mission “to feed, to clothe, to comfort and to care.” These budgets seem small compared to the $1.1 trillion federal budget, yet they do [relieve] some [of the] pressure [from] the government in taking care of everything the underprivileged need. […]

Sometimes, I think we put too much faith in our government that they will take care of pushing our economy forward, as well as taking care of those most in need. A Gallup poll just reported that just 13% of Americans approve of the job that Congress is doing. If that was the approval rating in any other part of our society, they would all be gone. This is the group we must rely on next fall to permanently fix the day-to-day operations of our government. Based on their recent history, I am skeptical that this will happen. That is why the rest of us have to step up with the “big ideas” to make our civilization work with or without our government’s support.

Original article here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/congress-could-use-a-less_b_4639725.html

Did Not Make It Home for the Holidays

The weather [this month] not only played havoc on retail sales but ruined many holiday celebrations by causing electrical outages, undelivered packages and [poor travel conditions]. December brought the coldest weather some areas have seen in decades, [including] a reading of 135.8 degrees below zero […] in Antarctica, […] the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth. […]

With this extreme weather, […] I just can’t imagine what it would be like to be homeless during this time. [Recently], USA Today reported on [Isaac Simon], a financial adviser who, [once a week] for the last six years, […] packs his white van [in Manhattan] with soup, bagels, milk and oranges and drives into areas where the homeless gather. He also has clothes to help those less fortunate. When you think that New York City, one of the wealthiest cities in the world, has [51,000 people] in their homeless shelters, […] you know America has a problem that we can’t just sweep under the rug. With that many people in need, we need hundreds of Isaac Simons to help just in Manhattan alone.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S. Conference of Mayors survey of 25 large and midsize cities indicates that homelessness and hunger have increased and are expected to continue to rise in 2014. [At 15.1%], [t]he [current] poverty rate […] is still near the Great Recession high of 15.1%. In Los Angeles, 20,000 people sleep on the streets every night, and 2,000 of them are families or children living on their own. Homelessness has increased by 26% in L.A. since last year, [and] Chicago [has] reported an 11.4% increase in the number of homeless families, [as well]. […]

In my city of Phoenix, nonprofit [and government] organizations [alike] are acutely aware of the issues facing the poor. We have St. Vincent de Paul serving over 3,600 meals a day to the homeless and families in need. We have the city helping homeless vets to find places to live off the streets. Two years ago, the city identified 222 chronically homeless veterans, of which more than half served in Vietnam. Our mayor, Greg Stanton, announced right before Christmas that the final 56 veterans were placed in housing. This happened because the city council allocated an additional $100,000 in November to accelerate the efforts to help homeless vets.

President Obama’s administration has pledged to eliminate homelessness among veterans by the end of 2015, but it looks like time is running short unless cities and states get involved like Phoenix has. The Washington Post [reports] the state of Massachusetts and the Department of Veteran Affairs have put aside dollars to hire veterans, some formerly homeless, […] to help get veterans off the streets in Boston. They spend one day a week roaming the city’s storefronts, alleys and shelters seeking out these homeless veterans. The rest of the week is spent making sure those put into housing stay the course.

Now that the holidays are over, we as a society begin to focus [more] on our own needs. […] Whether it is finding a gym to get back in shape or a diet to lose the holiday pounds, our attention naturally shifts away from those who need our help 365 days a year. Homelessness is not just the responsibility of our government; it is all of our communal responsibility, whether it is in the dead of winter or the heat of summer. Obviously, volunteering is the best way to get involved, but if you don’t have the gumption of Isaac Simon or the political prowess of Mayor Stanton, then helping out with donated money is a high priority. […] The National Homeless Coalition, The Salvation Army and [CityGate Network] [editor’s note: formerly The Association of Gospel Rescue Missions] all make homelessness their priorities. […]

Maybe what we should all do is what the Lakewood Congregational Church Youth Foundation in northern Ohio does and has been doing for years. On a night in January, they sleep in cardboard boxes outside in the bitter cold and spend the evening seeking donations from community member passing by to help less fortunate families. If that does not wake up the younger generation to the needs of the homeless, then nothing will. Can you imagine if in every city in every state, we all give up the comforts of our homes for one night to experience the immorality of homelessness, what that would do for the psyche of America? I am sure that if we addressed this issue on a grassroots level and all woke up the next morning freezing cold and hungry, […] Congress would hear our collective voices saying enough is enough, and [they] would reverse the recent cuts in food stamps, show compassion with the new congressional budget deal, and help those who need unemployment benefits.

Wouldn’t that be a way to start off 2014?

Original article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/did-not-make-it-home-for-_b_4524051.html

Can Small Businesses Survive This Christmas?

[Supported by] Black Friday, Cyber Monday and, [now], Small Business Saturday, [sales made in] November and December […] represent as much as 40% of yearly retail stores sales, according to the National Retail Federation. [With] Thanksgiving [falling] so late on the calendar [in 2013], [though] there are six fewer shopping days between [then] and Christmas. […] On top of that, Hanukkah fell on Thanksgiving [this year], which last happened in 1888 and won’t happen again during our lifetime. This leaves only 26 shopping days left to buy stuff. […] Can small businesses […] survive into 2014?

Who are these small-business owners [who] may not be around next year? One section is immigrants who, since the beginning of America, have been the backbone of small-business retailers. [F]or centuries, there has been a merchant class [in Europe] that had a long history of selling products into established clientele. Many laws [there] protect these small retailers against bigger competitors. In America, [though], the desire to throw yourself wholeheartedly into your business by putting in long hours and becoming a beacon where relatives follow you and work for you to have room and board is part of the price of entry into retailing for many […] immigrants. Much like the family farm, [this] has become the family store for the immigrant classes to start their life in the “New World.”

Another section of small-business retailers who have emerged are entrepreneurs. […] Some may have worked for big stores and felt they could do it better; [and] others may be following an idea they have been honing since they first started shopping. These entrepreneurs are disciplined and […] focused on making their business work. These individuals are confident and don’t ask questions about whether they can succeed or are even worthy of success, because they know their business will succeed. They [know] that every situation is a business opportunity [and] that if something needs to be done, they have the ability to start it themselves. They are competitive, […] creative and can make a connection between seemingly unrelated events, [b]ut, most of all, they are passionate and genuinely love the products they sell in their stores.

We know we have to support small businesses. The government has an important division known as the U.S. Small Business Administration. Retired, successful business people know that our small businesses must survive, so they have formed [the] Service Core of Retired Executives, [or SCORE], whose mission is to mentor and grow small businesses across America. […]

Americans have tried not to forget about their neighbors running the small businesses in their towns. In 2012, when Small Business Saturday fell on November 24, [before Thanksgiving], $5.5 billion was spent at small businesses. [Last year], 100 million people participated in Small Business Saturday, […] but, obviously, this number is surpassed by the 247 million who shopped on Black Friday.

Retailers know that an increase in sales cures most problems, and, evidently, a decrease in sales creates most problems. None of us want to see more and more of these small businesses going out of business, [b]ut unless all of us step up and buy locally rather than have these local dollars go to an unknown chain corporate office outside of our city, we will see more and more of our neighbors’ businesses disappear. Local retailers give a city its character. When you think America is the true melting pot of characters, we have to support small businesses.

Original article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/can-small-businesses-surv_b_4361763.html

It Really Does Take a Village

The partial government shutdown for 16 days caused some Americans to lose hope in our democratic way of life. If our elected officials can’t get along, what does that say about how the normal citizen can get along with their neighbors? If we can’t take care of ourselves and the basic functions of daily living, how can we even expect [to] take care of others? […]

Even though Congress postponed the inevitable with the recent passage of the funding of the government and raising the debt ceiling, both issues were just kicking the can down the road until Jan. 15, 2014, for the budget and Feb. 7, 2014, for the debt ceiling. Through all of this, the country forgot about the sequestration that started on March 1, 2013.

As reported in The Washington Post, the impact of this sequester has become very harsh to those in our society in the most need. […] Head Start,[for instance], [plans to cut] 177,000 children from their program, which [was designed to help] young children from low-income families. […] President Johnson [launched Head Start in 1965] as part of his “War on Poverty” [campaign]. In addition to the suffering we are inflicting on Head Start, 1.3 million fewer students will receive Title I education assistance, which distributes funding to schools with a high percentage of students from low-income families. On top of all of this, […] there will be 9,000 fewer special-education staff [members] in our classrooms and $291 million less [in] childcare subsidies for working families.

This […] sequestration not only affects kids, it is affecting other parts of our society. [Approximately] 760,000 […] households will receive less heating and cooling assistance under the Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program. [Additionally], $2 billion less is being sent to the National Institutes of Health, which corresponds with 1,300 fewer research grants. [I]t goes on and on. […]

We are approaching another holiday season, [and while it doesn’t feel very] festive after living through these 16 days of dysfunction, […] the spirit of America seems to be alive even though our leaders can’t get along. The boots-on-the-ground Americans are rising above the fray in Washington, D.C., to help those who need help:

  • WGGB in Springfield, Mass., reports the “Coats for Kids” campaign has begun to collect gently used coats to help families in need. The Salvation Army has been doing this campaign to help those who need it most for 33 years.
  • WKRC in Cincinnati reports how local law enforcement officers are getting child seats into the hands of those who cannot afford them so all children will be safer on the roads. […]
  • The Coshocton Tribune reports about the “Rags to Riches” clothing drive, where Ridgewood Elementary has taken the lead in helping to collect clothes for the underprivileged children in their town in Ohio.

Helping others who are struggling is a core American value that […] has to get stronger. […] Volunteering is great, but we are at a point that people will not survive unless all of us step in to help financially. We have all seen image[s] of the Great Depression in the 1930s, where America looked like a third-world country, and none of us have the desire to see that again in 2014. Most communities have The Salvation Army and The United Way. […] Nationally, the Children’s Defense Fund and Kids in Distressed Situations help get the funds where they are most needed. […]

NBC reported that [in] Marion, Iowa, [many women] have stepped in to help low-income mothers who depend on WIC, the federally funded nutrition program for women, infants and children. They are handing out baby food, formula and cereal to those who used to rely on the government to help them. This scene needs to repeat itself in every city and town across America. We have to take care of each other now, because […] we can’t [always] count on our government to take care of those most in need.

Original article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/it-really-does-take-a-vil_b_4254526.html

Basics of Retail Math

Retailing is all about change, because consumers change and so do their tastes. If you don’t change, you don’t grow.

Marvin Traub, Former President & CEO of Bloomingdale’s

[N]o matter what your collateral reasons for opening a retail store—[setting your own schedule, being your own boss]—the numbers are obviously what drive your decision about whether or not to invest the large and intense amount of time and effort it takes to build a business you can call your own. [S]eeing a lot of numbers all at once can be intimidating—[i]nitially, that is. [A]s the saying goes, [however], there is “strength in numbers.” In fact, having a basic understanding of how to interpret these numbers makes many decisions that seem gray at first quite black and white.

This [white paper] touches on the meaning of the basic numbers you’ll encounter in the retail business. If you are coming from another industry, such as manufacturing or real estate, the way retailers figure their numbers may look a little strange to you. Most other industries deal with markups, [or] the profit as a percentage of cost; retailers deal in margins, [or] profit as a percentage of retail selling price.

Retailers typically keep a two-column ledger in order to fully understand what is going on with their business. In the left column, they keep a running record of the cost of the merchandise, [or] the landed price including the cost of goods and shipping costs. In the right column, they keep a running record of the retail value of the merchandise, [or] the sum of the retail price tickets on all the items in the store.

This method lets you keep track of the markdowns in the right column so you can see at a glance the profitability of an item, department and store. Also, this approach shows you the profit or loss in the month it occurs and resets the margin for the new month, giving you a true month-to-month comparison. Make sure that any accountant you involve with your business fully understands retail accounting. If not, you could truly be at a loss.

Under the retail methodology, the selling price of an item is always 100%; [t]herefore, both cost (the amount you pay for an item) and markup (the amount by which you increase the price to cover your expenses and profit) must equal 100%.

For instance, if you paid 55¢ for a spatula and sold it for $1.00, your gross profit margin would be 45¢ (45%) and your cost of goods would be 55¢ (55%). (In other industries, the 45¢ profit might be expressed as a percentage of cost, giving you a markup of about 82%.)

Health of Your Business

To determine how well or, perish the thought, how badly their business is doing, retailers routinely compare each month with the same month a year prior, […] because, given the large seasonal swings almost all retailers experience, there is little meaning in comparing this month’s sales with last month’s. [I]f this February you did $110,000 in sales and last February you did $100,000, your business would be 10% ahead of last year, [a]nd if this continues for a while, you can be happy with your trend. Of course, if the numbers were reversed and you did $100,000 this year and $110,000 last, you would be 9% behind, and you would have to take prompt remedial action.

In looking at these figures, you must exclude new stores or departments you opened. To determine how healthy your business is, the comparison between years must be apples to apples—that is, same-store performance.

Establishing Initial Margin

To discuss the retail concept of margin, it is important to have a few definitions under our belts first:

  • Cost of Goods (COG): What you pay the vendor for products
  • Selling Price of Merchandise: What your customers pay the store for these goods
  • Initial Margin: [T]he difference between retail and cost, expressed as a percentage of retail (e.g., if you buy a shirt for $3 and sell it for $7, your initial margin is $4, or 59.1%)

Inventory Turn

Turnover of inventory, or “turn,” is the calculation of how many times you sell and replenish the merchandise in your store over the course of a year. To figure out your turn, divide your annual sales by your average inventory (at retail). For instance, if your sales are $400,000 for the year and your average retail is $100,000, your turn is four. The more times you can turnover your inventory, the better it is, because:

  • You will have less older merchandise.
  • You will have more opportunities to buy, which should lead to better buys.
  • The inventory will be more up to date.
  • Less money will be tied up in inventory.
  • You’ll make more profit on your invested capital. […]

Stock-to-sales ratio is the monthly view of turnover. It is the amount of merchandise in the store at the beginning of a given month divided by the amount of sales of merchandise for the month. It provides you with a quick view on how well you manage the inventory. For instance, if you have inventory of $120,000 and $30,000 in sales for the month, then your stock-to-sales ratio is four-to-one. This means that it will take four months of selling at your current rate to sell through the average monthly inventory.

Knowing that there are 12 months in a year, this means you are turning your goods at the rate of three times a year (12 months divided by a four stock-to-sales ratio); [h]owever, if your (realistic) goal is to achieve a stock-to-sales ratio of three-to-one, that is a turn of four—you are overstocking and need to find ways to operate on less inventory or to sell more!

Your ultimate goal should always be to develop the highest level of sales from the smallest possible inventory, [b]ut be careful what you wish for—[i]f you try to push your turns too high, you may run out of merchandise that your customers want, and they may go elsewhere.

The number of turns for which you should aim varies by type of retailer; [t]hus, before you set your target, you should find […] the industry norm. Actually, this is another reason to belong to the trade association most related to your type of retail store. Such organizations can give you the average guidelines for turn and stock-to-sales ratios for different seasons that should help you keep the right amount of inventory on hand, particularly through your first few years in business.

You should review your turnover ratio every week. The higher the turnover, the stronger the retail business will be. With a high turnover, you have less money invested in the inventory at any given time and a lower risk of carrying products your customers do not want to buy. You get higher sales from the same amount of space, have fresher goods in the store and can always feature new items to tempt your customers. There’s nothing more disappointing to a repeat customer than seeing nothing but the same old stuff.

While turn rates are innately different between different categories of retail, within each category there are two basic and quite different strategies that you must decide upon when setting your turnover objectives:

  1. High margin, high price and low turnover
  2. Low margin, low price and high turnover

A low-turnover item must give you a high margin in order to pay the rent for sitting on your shelf for along time. In contrast, a high-turnover item obviously has to pay less rent and, therefore, can make a lower margin. Strategically, you can mix these two turnover concepts as long as one dominates the other so you are giving a clear message to the customers. For instance, in your toy department, you may price [a] Barbie [doll] at cost to create a high turn but price [the doll’s] accessories higher to create more margin, expecting that customers who buy [the] Barbie [doll] because of the price will pick up the other items, because no little girl can exist without at least three new outfits for her doll!

Obviously, you want to turn all your merchandise as quickly as possible. The trick is to recognize that you may have to stock low-turnover items as a service to your customers to induce them to come to your store and buy the more popular items.

For example, a well-known cosmetic company’s president was delving through his firm’s lipstick sales and discovered that, of the 96 shades they marketed, four did 81% of the business, 10 did 94% of the business and 15 did 98% of the business. His first thought was to discontinue all but the fast-selling four. Fortunately for him, wiser heads prevailed, and the company kept 15 shades and discontinued the rest. “We’ll save so much inventory by eliminating 81 shades, we’ll increase our profits even if we lose the whole 2% of sales that are in the discontinued shades,” the president explained. “In any case, most of the women buying those shades will probably switch to the ones we’re keeping.”

The result? Sales fell to about half. A large majority of women were buying the same 15 shades, but they wanted to feel they had a huge choice. They were offended to think that the company was, in effect, deciding the shade for them.

The president not only reinstated the missing shades, [but] he increased their number to 125. The result? Sales grew to about 30% more than the original level—but women still almost exclusively bought the same 15 shades!

Yes, providing a good selection is often part of pleasing your customers, [b]ut it has a cost. Slow turn causes:

  • Slow-moving merchandise to clog your shelves and make it harder for customers to find the goods they want
  • Excessive accumulation of old styles, odd sizes and extreme colors
  • Increased expenses
  • Deeper markdowns and the need to run them more often

The challenge is to balance the inventory level against the service level you want to provide your customers. As I said, it’s a balancing act. Too high a turn will produce too many out-of-stock situations and, hence, lost sales and disgruntled, often [never]-returning, customers. Too low a turnover could put you out of business.

Determining How Much Margin to Go After

Remember the retailer’s creed: always strive to squeeze as much margin as possible. The more margin you can extract from one item, the more money you have to cut prices (and margins) on the products and deals that drive traffic through your store; [h]owever, when trying to raise margins, you must bear in mind what the consumer is willing to pay in your store environment. If you are a discount store, you cannot expect to make the same margin the department store down the street makes on the same item. In your store, your customers are only in the mood for bargains. In general, margin decisions should be based on:

  • Competitors’ retail. If an item is carried throughout your trading area and it’s an item you cannot do without, you must decide if you are going to be parity priced with everyone else or have the lowest price in town. Having the lowest price will hurt your overall margin, but it may increase turn and build customer traffic.
  • Last year’s sales on this item or a similar product. Once you have a history of an item, you can determine how price-sensitive it is and if you have room to get more margin.
  • Planned turnover of an item. If you expect sales to be limited and you’re carrying the item only as a convenience for the customers, take the extra margin. I always thought the president of the cosmetics company […] should have up-priced all the colors that hardly sold and called them “premium shades!” Not only would he have improved his margins, but I bet he would have sold more of those shades. Cosmetics buyers are always looking for something “exclusive.”
  • Wholesale costs. Be sure to shop around among wholesalers (if you are not dealing directly with the manufacturer) to see if you can reduce the price you are paying. Even a few pennies saved can accumulate into good margin gains at the end of the year. Most retailers make a pretax profit of between 2% and 8% of sales; only in rare cases do their pretax profits exceed 10%. Let’s assume that your pretax profit is 5% of sales. Now, if you can cut the cost of your purchases so your margin increases by 2%, […] by paying $6 for an item you sell for $10 instead of paying $6.25, that extra 25¢ drops to your bottom line. That means that your pretax profit increases from 50¢ to 75¢—a whopping 50% increase in your profits! If you can make a 2.5% improvement on all the cost of all merchandise you sell, and your annual sales are $1 million, then your pretax profit would rise from $50,000 to $75,000. Not bad! Certainly worth pushing your suppliers to give you some price breaks. Because there are no additional expenses, that extra 25¢ drops to your bottom line and you make 50¢ for every $10 of merchandise you sell.
  • Manufacturers’ suggested retail. Although this is only a guideline, it gives you a sense of the worth of products. If you are a discounter, this also allows you to prove to your customers how much you have cut your price.
  • Handling and selling costs. Products can vary dramatically in what they cost to sell. Some products (like glassware) break easily, so customers or salespeople are likely to damage a certain percentage of the stock. Certain goods have a tendency to disappear because of shoplifting (electronics). Others are extremely heavy or awkward to move from the warehouse to the selling floor, so the freight and handling costs may be high. Some may be shipped from across the street, while others may be coming from across the country, so transportation costs need to be considered. Some goods may come in preticketed, while others require a lot of handling and ticketing in the store, adding to your cost. Some goods tend to have a high return rate. All these costs need to be factored into the product’s retail price. A brittle, faddy, easily stolen article with a 60% margin may actually be less profitable than a solid “evergreen” product with a 40% margin.
  • Nature of the goods. If you are dealing in fad- or fashion-oriented merchandise (which includes everything from fashions themselves to cosmetics to toys to novelties that come and go—remember the Pet Rock?), know what an item’s likely shelf life is. How will the manufacturer help with markdowns? These, too, are factors you need to consider when thinking through how to price merchandise and how much initial margin to achieve.
  • Correlation among departments. For instance, infant clothing should not be selling higher than boys’ and girls’ clothing.
  • Demand and supply of goods. If you have the exclusive distribution of a hot item, you can usually squeeze out additional margin. If there is a high demand but short supply and you find there is little price resistance for an item, you can get additional margin there, as well.

How to Increase Your Margin

Obviously, the question here becomes, “How do I increase my margin?” An additional question must be, “How do I increase my margin while still keeping my customers happy and, therefore, my sales rising?” Relax. There are several different tactics you can use to help increase your margin while at the same time not changing the customer’s experience in the store:

Import Merchandise

It sounds complicated at first glance; [h]owever, importing merchandise can take on several different phases as your store grows. You may want to start off small, dealing with an importer using his label on the products. Once you reach a certain volume, […] you may be able to bring in your own private-label products at considerably lower cost. In addition to saving money, here are some reasons to look into importing:

  1. No middle man. If you are dealing with an importer directly or eventually importing your own products, you have eliminated the wholesaler or distributor from whom you were buying the goods; [t]hus, you have added their margin to your own.
  2. Control. Once you establish a personal relationship with the overseas manufacturer, you may better control the quality, quantity and timeliness of the merchandise you are buying.
  3. Exclusivity. By importing a product featuring your name (and, possibly, your specifications), you can display an item that no competitor carries. That means you can sell it for whatever the market will bear without having to worry too much about what your competitors are doing.
  4. Competitive Retail. You can bring in a high-quality, private-label item to compete effectively with a higher-priced, branded product carried by your competitors. In this way, you may be able to enhance your low-price reputation while still maintaining a comfortable margin.

Cash Discounts

Vendors are generally forced to extend credit; [h]owever, because cash is king to them, they often encourage you to pay before the due date by offering you a cash discount for early payment or a payment in advance of a specific date. Among the more common cash discounts are:

  1. 3/10 EOM. A discount of 3% if the invoice is paid within 10 days from the end of the month
  2. 2/10 Net 30. A discount of 2% if the invoice is paid within 10 days from the date it is issued; 10 is the number of days the rate is available, [and] 30 is the number of days within which the invoice must be paid
  3. 3/10 ROG: A discount of 3% if the invoice is paid within 10 days of receipt of goods

Delivery Terms

Delivery terms indicate when and where the title of the merchandise passes from the seller to the buyer. That is the time and place at which your risk of ownership begins. From that time and place, you own the goods and you pay for insurance and transportation; [t]herefore, you can save money by delaying the point at which you actually take possession of the merchandise. Two common delivery terms are:

  1. FOB factory. Your store owns the goods as soon as the carrier picks the shipment up at the factory. That means you pay the freight from there.
  2. FOB warehouse or store. In this case, because the seller owns the goods until they arrive at your location, the seller pays freight, insurance, etc.

Dating

Dating extends the time by which you have to pay for merchandise. As the saying goes, “Time is money.” Dating is valuable for two reasons:

  1. [T]he interest you save on the money that you keep under your control for longer. This value depends on the prevailing rate at which you can borrow money. For instance, if interest rates are 12% per annum […], then adding an additional month before you have to pay is worth 1% of the money you owe. If interest rates are 6%, that translates into a 0.5% gain each month. Always ask for additional dating.
  2. [Y]ou are likely to find that, like most retailers, you are chronically short of cash. This is not necessarily unhealthy (although it is uncomfortable), because there is a good reason for it. If your business is growing (as you hope and intend that it will), you need more inventory. Even if your turn is a very impressive six times a year, in the short run, you are still putting out more cash than you are collecting. […] Typically, you have to pay for the extra inventory in one month. Of course, you’ll get your money back in time, plus the profit on the extra volume, but you’ll be strapped until then. Dating helps overcome this problem. Fortunately, it also helps your supplier, because you can buy, display and sell more of his [or her] merchandise.

Dating is always helpful, but there are occasions when you have a particularly strong argument to ask for it:

  1. Opening a new store. The goods will be sitting in a store with no chance of selling or turning until the store opens, usually for 30 days.
  2. Shipping to a warehouse instead of a store. The store loses the turnaround time it takes to get goods out of the warehouse. Goods could sit in a warehouse for 30 days or more before moving to the store.

Markdowns

As the name implies, to mark something down means to reduce the original retail price. Markdowns are taken for three rather different sets of reasons:

  1. To speed the sale of slow-moving products; to clear your inventory of odd sizes, colors and styles; and to encourage the sale of soiled or damaged goods
  2. To maintain price competition with other stores
  3. To create the excitement of a special sale (the “happiest” of the three reasons, because, while you’ll still lower your margins, you’ll boost your sales)

Other Retail Practices Used to Change Prices

Since the price you charge your customers will always affect your bottom line, you can never overestimate or underestimate the importance of price. Here are some other retail practices sometimes used to change prices:

  • Additional markup. As the name implies, this practice changes the price upward. It is mostly used in one of the following occasions:
    • A special sale is run at a marked-down price, then the price is marked up to its previous level after the sale.
    • A vendor increases the price on the next shipment of a certain item. Because the competition will be forced to increase their prices, those items already in your store are marked up.
  • Markup cancelation. When you introduce a new item into your store, you may initially mark it up in order to establish a high price. Then, once that value is established, you may cancel the additional markup and reduce the merchandise for a special sale. To some extent, you may be able to use the extra margin you earn when you first bring the item in (and it’s still new and exciting enough to attract customers, in spite of its higher price) to help finance the lower-margin sale you run subsequently.

Open to Buy

The purpose of an “Open to Buy,” or OTB, system is to tell you exactly how much merchandise you must purchase to satisfy the amount of inventory you have budgeted for a specified period of time, usually one month. The simplified way of looking at OTB [for a one-month period] is:

Planned end-of-month (EOM) inventory$100,000
Planned sales+$40,000
Planned markdowns+$2,000
Merchandise on order and due to arrive by EOM-$15,000
Beginning-of-month (BOM) inventory-$90,000
Open to Buy (OTB)$37,000

Before you ever commit to buying product, you must have your OTB plan in front of you. That way, you’ll know when you need (and can afford) to buy new merchandise. You may not have the money to bring it in during [one month], but, with your plan in front of you, you’ll be able to see that there is room during the first week of [the next month]. Without your OTB plan, you may inadvertently overextend yourself. You may be the best buyer in the world, but if you do not have the money to pay for goods, you won’t last long in retailing.

The only way to stay on top of this crucial facet of the business is to have a plan. The first step in developing this plan is to project your sales by month for the first year. Of course, this is a moving target, so you need to re-project them or make sure your prior projection is still on target at the start of every month.

The second step in your planning is to establish the turn of your inventory so you know how much inventory you will need at the start of each month to feed your projected sales. Once you know your sales and turn, you can quickly calculate your OTB to see how much to purchase each month. If, during the year, you are trending up or down in sales, OTB can easily be adjusted to meet those specific needs. Like all of the retail math tools we’re discussing here, look at this OTB as a tool for success, not something that will get in your way.

Retail Method of Inventory

Stopping Shrinkage

Shortages […] can cause a store to go out of business—[f]ast. That is why it is important to have procedures in place to keep track of everything happening in the store, from receipt of goods to final sale. There are two definitions of inventory:

  1. Physical inventory. This is the counting of the stock that is actually on hand.
  2. Book inventory. This is the record of what should be on hand. To derive the book inventory, begin with the starting inventory (either from store opening or the results of last year’s physical inventory). Add all purchases, all returns that are in [salable] condition and any […] goods the vendor may have provided for substandard merchandise. Subtract all sales and the amount of any markdowns that were below the price you paid for the goods.

Overage […] is the difference between the physical inventory and the book inventory. The only cause for an overage is a booking error that should be avoided by double-checking everything. Some [overage] is inevitable, and you need to plan for it. It represents the loss of merchandise for reasons that cannot be precisely specified. Those reasons include:

  • Vendor mistakes or fraud. Sometime[s], containers don’t include the full count of goods.
  • Employee theft. This includes outright theft for profit (e.g., letting a few cases “fall off the back of a truck”), pilfering merchandise for personal use (taking home a box of detergent), and using store merchandise for legitimate reasons but without paying for it (a store clerk who needs a pencil opens a pack […] and tosses the rest).
  • External theft. The most frequent method of external theft is shoplifting. More rarely, theft from your warehouses may occur.
  • Clerical mistakes and bookkeeping errors.
  • Unrecorded markdowns and allowances. These result in the quantity of product sold for the dollar volume recorded actually being greater than the recorded amount. For example, if you mark down a $10 item to $5 but fail to note the markdown on your books, selling $100 worth of that item will sell 20 items but only show 10 as having sold. The missing 10 items will show up as inventory shrinkage.
  • Unrecorded breakage.

How to Minimize Shrinkage

Some shrinkage may be unavoidable, but [the] majority of the loss is preventable. Whether the issue is sloppy record-keeping or neighborhood hooligans taking a “five-finger discount,” take the following steps to minimize shortages:

  • Record merchandise as soon as it arrives.
  • Properly mark, price and identify merchandise before moving it to the selling floor.
  • Record all price changes.
  • Record each transaction.
  • Change records before transferring goods or returning them to the vendor.
  • Take precaution against theft, as discussed in the following sections.

Shrinkage from all causes has become a bigger problem than ever, particularly for first-time retail business owners for whom paperwork can easily become an overwhelming chore. In fact, the problem has become so prevalent that a 2% loss in shrinkage is a standard of the industry today. As discussed earlier, a positive change in the cost of goods has a huge impact on your bottom line. Unfortunately, shrinkage has exactly the same effect—in reverse! In addition to keeping careful records, there are several things you can do to curb shrinkage.

Employee Theft

Your employees should be the last people to steal from you. After all, you’re the one signing their checks! Unfortunately, the opposite is true: most employees steal from their employers.

The incidence of employee theft is high in retailing. Employees have greater access to a wide range of consumer goods that they either desire for themselves or know they can resell on the black market. Moreover, employees often view what they take as trivial and don’t consider it stealing. “So I ate a muffin without paying for it; I was hungry.” The office employee’s equivalent is taking home some ballpoint pens and pads of paper; [h]owever, trivial or not, these thefts add up, and their financial impact goes way beyond the items stolen, because it reduces your store’s productivity, lowers turnover, inhibits hiring and makes your store less viable.

In addition to casual pilfering, you may well face planned thievery—the willful theft of merchandise, supplies, or cash. Conspiracy with shoplifters or delivery persons is also common.

Shoplifting

Shoplifting is a major problem, especially of smaller, easily hidden items in general merchandise retailers and of expensive items in larger stores. While most shoplifters simply try to slip some easily hidden items into their pockets or bags, some shoplifters are more sophisticated.

To give you some idea of how tricky they can be, one of their favorite tricks works like this:

  1. The criminal legally purchases an expensive article of clothing or an electronic device, takes it out of the store, removes the tags, leaves the item outside, and returns to the store with the tags and the receipt.
  2. Back inside, the thief picks out an identical item, takes it to the dressing room or some quiet corner of the store, and removes the tags.
  3. Next, he or she takes the item, without the tags, to the return desk, hands it and the receipt and tags from the legitimately purchased item to the harried clerk, and receives a refund.

Unless a store security person actually catches the thief removing the tags, it’s hard to prove that the second item is not the first one. Even if each item is numbered sequentially so the serial number on the item does not match the receipt (something the clerk at the return desk is unlikely to notice), it is difficult to use that as proof of a scam when the thief can claim that the serial number was incorrectly recorded on the item. Some thieves even have the gall to go to another store in the same chain and return the first item, claiming they lost the tags. Others sell the items to a fence.

Strengthening Store Security

A secure store is a store that is experiencing less shrinkage than its competitors. Security may be costly, but so is shrinkage. Often the mere appearance of security to both your customers and your employees is enough to do the trick. Here are some timely tips for strengthening your store’s security:

  1. Equip the store with a security alarm system hooked up to a central service company. Give each employee his or her own code so you can monitor who comes and goes.
  2. Use locked trash [D]umpsters to decrease the risk of merchandise being thrown into the [D]umpster and retrieved later.
  3. Do not permit personnel to park near loading docks or exit doors. A longer walk to stash or transport items can be a real deterrent to employee theft.
  4. Strictly enforce inventory control and tracking procedures.
  5. Follow up on all references when hiring any new employee.
  6. Implement an anonymous tip program that motivates employees to report theft, drug abuse and other business abuses by both coworkers and outsiders.
  7. Keep a close tab on customers who spend a lot of time in your store. The closer you watch, the less likely a shoplifter is to target your store.
  8. Place observation cameras at strategic locations. As long as the red lights blink, they can be fake cameras. One fast-food chain I know has three dummy cameras that appear to be hidden but are easily observed by employees when they are peering down at the cash register. They are inexpensive because they don’t work; [h]owever, the store also has one real camera that is very well-hidden. Employees who decide to raid the cash register naturally turn away from the three cameras they think are observing them, shielding their misdeeds with their bodies. What they don’t realize is that they have turned directly to face the working, well-hidden camera. They are surprised when a week or two later, they are laid off without explanation. The company never actually accuses them of stealing; if it did, it would have to reveal the presence of the hidden camera, and then the game would be over.

Parting Words

As we have seen throughout this chapter, retail is, indeed, a numbers game. [W]e have provided you with the basics of retail math; [s]till, they are only the basics. Along the way, you will encounter nuances of retail numbers that will only add to your experience in this competitive, thriving and, ultimately, rewarding field. […]

Knowledge is the key to success. Knowing the numbers before you start your retailing adventure is vital to your success. Certainly, there is a lot to learn, but know this: understanding the basics will help you fine tune the rest and, in the meantime, will keep you alive and well, the latest addition to the thriving retail industry.

Nonprofits Buying in the Profit World Online

Since the beginning of time, buyers have always intended to acquire goods at a low cost, and this is what drives competition. On the Internet, competition is even more intense, because comparing products and prices from one company to the next is only a click away, whereas in the traditional shopping experience, customers need to go from showroom to showroom to compare, which is time-consuming [and] tiring.

Currently, there are three levels of distribution on the Internet:

  1. Manufacturer. This is the company that actually makes the products. They are not set up to supply individual organizations with smaller quantities of their products. They ship by truckload either directly to chain organizations that have central warehousing that can hold large quantities of goods, or they ship to wholesalers and distributors who put the products in their warehouses and sell in smaller quantities. Manufacturers usually have Internet sites that provide information about their products but do not give pricing unless you can take a truckload of goods.
  2. Wholesaler and Distributor. This is the middleman who provides the service to the manufacturer of dealing with smaller accounts. Whereas a manufacturer is not interested in checking the creditworthiness of small accounts or worry[ing] about the shipments and tracking of these accounts, the wholesaler has built these functions into their business model. Wholesalers have the infrastructure to stock a lot of products and to take, fill and process orders from all sizes of nonprofits. Their model has the warehouse space, sales networks, computers and tracking systems to provide the proper customer service.
  3. Online Retailer. This is the final link of the online supply chain to get goods to the consumer shopping over the Internet. Neither the manufacturer or the wholesaler is set up to sell individual products to consumers, and this has created an entire business on the Internet much like there are brick-and-mortar stores for consumers to shop in their own neighborhoods.

Nonprofits need to pass by the online retailers and find the true wholesalers and distributors using the Internet. Most wholesalers will require you to submit the organization’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt number, so have it handy when shopping through the Internet.

So how do you quickly find the right product at the right price that you can purchase from a trusted site? […]

  1. Use the major search engines. [D]on’t search for a generic term like “blankets,” because they will just return to you a bunch of retail sites, which becomes very frustrating. Always search for at least three words, and, if you have “wholesale” or “bulk” in your search, more than likely, it will get you closer to the distributors who can sell the goods by the case at much lower prices. For instance, [searching for] “wholesale fleece blankets” [returns at least] five different Internet sites where goods can be bought by the case at substantial savings, giving nonprofits more money to stretch their budgets to support their causes.
  2. There are several wholesale portals that pull together the top sites, giving you the ability to find the suppliers you need in one place. Go to WholesaleCentral.com or […] TopTenWholesale.com, [for instance], to find a listing of online distributors.

Even though you are on the cutting edge if you are a nonprofit organization using the Internet to source your needs, you still need to do your homework on the supplier before spending your organization’s hard-earned donations. The Internet can be a very cold place to do business. You have no idea who may be on the other side of the screen when looking at products. Can you trust them? Will they ship what is promised? Can you talk to them or do they only take email? [T]o protect your organization, your first order should be a test order to see if the supplier is who they say they are. Once received as promised, then you can get serious with this online supplier. If it is the right supplier, your job will be made easier for years to come.

Brother, Can You Spare a Milk-Bone®?

The effort in the recent Colorado floods shows our rescue missions for animals have come a long way since the pet loss disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, where people would not evacuate for fear of leaving their pets. CBS reported that some helicopters rescuing people in the Colorado flooding carried more dogs, cats and fish than people. Rescuers, using zip lines to evacuate people over the enlarged raging rivers, also risked their lives to make sure the animal members of the families were safe. The National Guard took the posture that including the pets in the rescue helped convince reluctant residents to leave their homes. Once the pets were on dry ground, the Red Cross shelters had water bowls, on-site kennels and other supplies so the already anxious evacuees would not have to be separated from their pets.

If we can rally around a disaster to ensure our four-legged companions are safe, why can’t we do the same in our day-in, day-out regular life? You have an ex-marine in Glennie, Mich., accused of torturing five dogs and six horses. In August, we had the second-largest dog fighting raid in U.S. history affecting 372 dogs in Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Georgia. These dogs ranged in age between a few days and 12 years old and were left to suffer in life-threatening heat with no visible fresh water or food, while some were tethered by chains and cables to cinder blocks and car tires. [T]hen you have an animal control officer in Long Island facing multiple charges because he had 850 snakes in his house and garage. When does our morality [related to] the sacredness of kindness in life kick in?

There are success stories. In Monticello, Ky., 80 dogs were rescued from a puppy mill. The Brown County Animal Center near Cincinnati was going to have to euthanize eight dogs at the end of the week, so they started a campaign for adoptions, and 10 dogs were adopted in time. [I]n all reality, [though], there are just not enough success stories to brag about.

The fourth quarter of the year is when we celebrate all kinds of holidays that reinforce our commitment to each other. We also should be taking care of the cats and dogs that are not as fortunate to have secure homes. We can help those suffering in Colorado from people to animals, [and] if you […] want to volunteer to help all animals in all cities, The Humane Society has a wonderful program to join their animal rescue team, where you can help save animals who are the victims of illegal animal cruelty and natural disasters. […]

In 2012, according to Statistic Brain, there were a little over 5,000 animal shelters in the United States. Five million animals entered these shelters, and 3.5 million were euthanized. […] Taxpayers pay $2 billion annually to round up, house and dispose of homeless animals. […] [T]hese numbers are mind-boggling, [y]et we only think about these poor victims when there is a flood in Colorado or a dog-fighting raid in Alabama. Since the majority of us are pet owners and pet lovers, these blameless animals that need our help every day should be at the top of our minds. Helping to support animals in need is the core of our decency. These innocent animals give us much happiness; let’s do everything we can to eliminate their pain and suffering and get them into loving homes.

Original article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/brother-can-you-spare-a-milkbone_b_4037328.html

It’s Too Expensive to Go to College Anymore

According to the [United States] Census Bureau, there are 59 million people 25 years or older who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. Business [remains] the most popular major, with 12 million [graduates], while [e]ducation [is] the second most popular, with 8 million [graduates]. The median income for high school [graduates]—[those] who [have] never [gone] to college—is $28,659 [annually]. [F]or those with some college [education] but no degree, it is $32,036 [per year], [while] those with a college degree [earn] $49,648 [annually], and those with professional degrees [bring home] $87,356. This translates [into average] lifetime earnings of $3.3 million for a doctoral degree, $2.3 million for a college degree and $1.3 million for a high school diploma.

According to CollegeData.com, the average yearly budget to attend an in-state public university is $22,261, [and t]he average [to attend] a private college is $43,289. CNN reports that the average college student in the class of 2013 faces $35,200 in debt. Putting that into perspective, the profile of the average U.S. household consumer debt shows we all owe $15,263 in credit card debt, $147,591 in mortgage debt and $31,646 in student loan debt. In total, American consumers [currently] owe $11.15 trillion in debt, of which $994 billion is in student loans, a 4% increase from 2012.

In an article in The Huffington Post this summer, [the author] predicted that student loan debt will exceed the median annual income for college grads by 2023. This is on top of the wages of college graduates actually dropping 5.4% over the last decade. Considering that Congress [has] finally agreed […], after months of haggling, to stabilize the interest rate for college loans, […] at least the uncertainty of future interest [rate] hikes has been eliminated for families facing this huge debt.

Just about every parent (94%) says they want their child to attend college, [s]o, with that encouragement, nearly 68% of high school graduates [have] started out for college (44% of these kids to community college). Compare that to 43% of Americans [who] attend church regularly and 50% of adults [who] are married [currently, and] [c]ollege is now more popular [than] religion or spouses!

In the end, only 54% of these kids actually graduate within six years of starting college, [s]o we have all these students with high hopes and dreams going in, but only about half graduate and join society with crazy student loan debt.

We would all love scholarships for our kids, but that does not happen to most. This weak economy of ours is forcing institutions to limit their generosity in scholarships and financial aid, so the average student takes on more debt than the generation before. Anyone wanting to go to college needs to explore every option for help. The Council for Opportunity in Education is a nonprofit organization […] dedicated to expanding college opportunities for low-income, first-generation students, veterans and students with disabilities. Sites to help find money and scholarships include Fast Web, FinAid and Student Aid Alliance. If you want to help fulfill kids’ dreams of going to college, look into Scholarship America to help with a donation. […]

America is the land of dreams and opportunity. Anyone who is passionate enough to want a college education should be afforded the opportunity to at least try. It would be just great if we could make a college education free just like we do a high school education, but each of us in our right mind knows this is a pipe dream, [s]o the $35,000 in student debt will turn into $45,000 for the next generation and so on. A college degree is worth a million dollars more than a high school degree over your lifetime. Being well-educated is priceless. I guess the risk of adding to your debt may be worth the reward of being a strong contributor to our economic future. I just wish it did not hurt so much.

Original article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/its-too-expensive-to-go-t_b_3935231.html

Teachers Have It Rough, but Kids Are the Ones Who Suffer

With the start of the school year, we have yet another terrifying shooting incident—[this latest], at the McNair Discovery Learning Academy […] in Decatur, Ga., [occurred] less than a year […] from the tragedy in Newtown, Conn. Between Newtown and Decatur, the United States has [witnessed] 12 other shootings at schools.

I just can’t [imagine] how much stress this puts on all teachers. Our dedicated teachers do what they do because they have a passion to help mold the future of this country, foster creativity in young people, develop character in students and help people lead productive lives. They become teachers because of their sense of service. Having to protect kids from shootings was not part of their original job description—but it is now.

[O]n top of the stress to protect our kids, salaries have not moved much for teachers during the recession […], [b]ut what has moved […] is the money teachers take out of their own pockets to help their kids. According to USA Today, teachers will be spending an average of $400 out of their own pockets for classroom supplies […] this fall, […] up 3% from last year.

Mallori Lucas, a language arts teacher in Valparaiso, Indiana, says, “Of course we’re not forced to spend our money, [b]ut some of these kids don’t even get breakfast before they come to school, so we buy those snacks and treats.”

[T]he National Center for Education has school spending on supplies at 4.1% of the budget today compared to 8.1% [a decade ago]. Kids still need the same amount of supplies and learning materials they needed 10 years ago, but it does not look like our schools have this in their budgets.

Teachers by nature are resourceful, considering that last year, they took $3 billion out of their own pockets to help their kids, and they are going to spend even more this year. You can see this inventive behavior with what happened all over the country this summer as teachers anticipated they needed to help their students more than ever.

  • Elementary school teacher Mary Loung started Educycle, which helps other teachers sell or pass along [usable] school materials and shop for supplies they need in their classrooms. Businesses can also donate any surpluses to schools through Educycle.
  • The Chicago Sun Times reports that David Zine and Peter Baker, high school social study teachers from Aurora, rode their bicycles to Seattle to raise money for Best Buddies, a nonprofit that partners special-needs and general-education students to help forge friendships.
  • The Memphis Business Journal talks about […] Elizabeth Monda […], one of the first teachers to use the [crowdfunding] site PledgeCents […] to raise $4,000 for materials for her students. […]

How did we, as a well-educated society, get ourselves into this mess where we are putting so much stress on the teachers who we entrust with our kids every day? School should be a sanctuary of learning, maturing and growing our children into the next greatest generation. Instead, teachers worry about bullets and having enough money for the basic functions needed to educate the leaders of tomorrow.

Our current leaders have raised taxes, have us in a sequestration and can’t agree on anything to help move this country forward. Nothing has changed since Newtown, except we are spending less to help our teachers teach our kids to be decent and honorable. It is the teachers of today with their dedication and determination who will set the example for their students by their actions of caring and giving. The rest of us need to support these public servants and ease their personal burden of doing the right thing for our kids.

Original article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/teachers-have-it-roughbut_b_3805308.html

Lucrazon, DollarDays Announce Drop-ship Wholesale Partnership

Lucrazon, one of the country’s leading e-commerce Web builders and merchant service providers, announced today that the nation’s largest wholesale e-commerce site, DollarDays, will use Lucrazon’s integrated e-commerce system for their drop-ship wholesale product-distribution network.

Lucrazon, an e-commerce Web-builder innovator and merchant-services provider, has brought 20 years of experience specializing in successfully servicing drop-shippers, suppliers, direct sales, network marketing, e-commerce and retail businesses of all types.

Now, Lucrazon and the nation’s largest wholesale e-commerce site, DollarDays, will partner up to offer DollarDays’ 3.5 million registered members their own fully integrated e-commerce website with preloaded inventory, [a] merchant account and complete access to DollarDays’ drop-ship wholesale product line. Members desiring to become small-business owners can sell over 300,000 products available in the Web-based virtual warehouse.

“Lucrazon offers each of our members the ability to have an automated e-commerce system with access to our products that is updated and orders fulfilled by DollarDays,” says Marc Joseph, CEO of DollarDays. “This provides our members a much more efficient e-commerce experience, in addition to customizing their own store with a blog, social-media integration, template choices and more.”

“DollarDays is the largest wholesale e-commerce drop-shipper in the nation, so it’s an immense honor that they’ve chosen Lucrazon as their solution,” says Alex Pitt, CEO of Lucrazon. “Our sophisticated Web builder will give their members the freedom to have an easy-to-manage, custom website with a completely automated inventory management system and [their] own merchant account. We strongly believe this product can be beneficial to anyone who desires to own an e-commerce business.”

Lucrazon and DollarDays’ drop-ship wholesale partnership provides a simple, easy and affordable solution for distributors to start their e-commerce business with preloaded inventory and real-time updates of images and descriptions for all products.

About DollarDays
Founded in 2001, DollarDays is the leading supplier of wholesale goods for nonprofits, businesses and betterment organizations. By sourcing affordable products, backed by exceptional service and meaningful community engagement, we strive to inspire and empower our customers to accomplish their missions to improve the lives of people around the world. Recognized as the City of Phoenix Mayor’s Office “2018 Product Exporter of the Year” and Internet Retailer Magazine’s “B2B E-commerce Marketer of the Year” for 2016 and 2017, DollarDays is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information, visit www.dollardays.com.