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Online Retail Expected To Be Up This Holiday Season

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According to statistics presented by the National Retail Federation, U.S. holiday online retail sales from brick-and-mortar outfits will be down 1% this year. On the other hand, comScore (SCOR) predicts online retail sales to be up 3% in November and December.

The online retail segment is still a very small portion of the total retail market (only 7% of total retail sales according to Forrester Research). However, there is good reason to trust that the online retail segment will continue to develop into a larger share of total retail sales.

While online retail companies, such as Amazon.com (AMZN – Analyst Report) and eBay (EBAY – Analyst Report) have been around for a while, the number of established retailers exploring the online retail area continues to grow. For example, Target Corp. (TGT – Snapshot Report), Best Buy Co. (BBY – Analyst Report) Toys R Us and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT – Snapshot Report) have started their own online stores.

Customers regularly opt for online retail purchasing due to its convenience, or when they need to save time. Other advantages include reviews by previous buyers, which reduce chances of remorseful buys and bargains and promotions, which bring down costs. However, most online retailers push the cost advantage the most, which is a stress on margins.

With the economy still in the despondency and unemployment rates still so low, consumers are still watcing their wallets. Therefore, marketing programs this holiday season are targeted at budget spending.

eBay’s online retail holiday deals include free shipping, discounts and guaranteed returns on new items. The company has also tied with Microsoft (MSFT – Analyst Report) for a place in the favorites menu of Internet Explorer 8. The online retail space is being used to offer information on its Daily Deals. Amazon.com and Walmart.com also offer similar online retail benefits, including the limited-time offers.

Target.com has shown a bit more ingenuity, offering online retail shopping tools such as a gift tracker that could help the user shop within budget and a Holiday 101 list that includes holiday necessaries that are likely to be overlooked.

The bottom line is, consumers expect to spend less this year, so older products on which prices have been lowered, such as Apple’s (AAPL – Analyst Report) iPod touch, Nintendo’s (NTDOY) Wii, Sony’s (SNE – Analyst Report) PS3 and Amazon’s Kindle are likely to remain hot. Garmin’s (GRMN – Analyst Report) GPS products and Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ – Analyst Report) mini netbooks are also expected to do well.

Tips for Searching for Retail Jobs Online

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If you have freshly graduated from college and are looking for a job, the retail sector is a worthwhile option. Finding retail jobs has become very convenient with the widespread use of the internet. However, before searching for these jobs online, there are several factors you should take into consideration that will help ensure that your search yields positive results.

When you are searching for retail jobs online, you must perform searches several times a day. This is primarily because the retail sector is growing at a very fast pace, as a result of which numerous job openings are made available on a daily basis. Even if you live in a very small city or town, you will still witness new jobs in the retail sector every day. Performing searches over and over again automatically means that you are improving your chances of getting hired in this sector. Another factor you must keep into consideration when performing the online job search is that you should use an application or a website that produces results from numerous job sites at the same time. The advantage of this is that you get to save a great deal of time, and you also get access to a significantly larger number of job sites.

Another factor to consider when searching for retail jobs online is to know which keywords to enter. For instance, regardless of whether you want to become a cashier, stocker or a customer services representative, you should search with the keyword “retail”. This will produce all the results that are available in the retail sector currently. If, on the other hand, you are absolutely sure of the position you wish to apply for, you should search with the name of that job title. For instance, for manager level jobs, you could search for “retail manager”. The above examples demonstrate that you need to know exactly when to be specific in your search and when to perform a general search.

Once you are done with the search for retail jobs, you must examine each job listing in detail. This ensures that you do not leave out any of the details when making a final decision about which ones to apply for. You must see if the job listing suits your capabilities and requirements. For instance, if a job requires you to work overnight and you cannot do so because of other responsibilities, you should immediately filter that listing from your search. Try to focus on the listings that meet the working hours you can fulfill and the qualifications and skills you possess.