Oi Vay!! Gas prices..ya know.. most of us can’t live our live’s without driving.

Personally, I do this little thing, once a week. I drive a little out of my way on my way home from work, to a small “Bedroom Community” about 25 miles from Albany NY(not far from where I live), to “gas up” for the week. The town has about 8 gas stations, which are very competitive in price. When one lowers the price they all try to out do the other by lowering “just that 1 penny more”. I’ve actually kept track and consistently I spend about 7 to 10 cents less per gallon each time I fill up, just by taking my weekly “fuel expeditions”.

So all tolled, I save about “a buck fifty” then splurge on an ice coffee to keep me awake the rest of the evening. Laugh if you will, most do, atleast I’m doing “something” about the high cost of gas and no one is keeping me “Hostage”..

And remember for all those shoppers out there, it’s all about the “HUNT”, although I may not be driving as much to shop these days, I “HUNT” just as well, On Line…send us your thoughts!

(link to Article from CNN.com)

Contributed by Kim Sapienza http://www.coresense.com
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The results of Internet Retailer’s latest survey on multi-channel e-commerce systems show that chain retailers, catalogers, virtual merchants and consumer brand manufacturers are beginning to use their e-commerce platforms to generate and support sales and brand management across diverse channels, rather than focusing only on the backend system functionality. We’re seeing this a lot as well when speaking with SMB retailers. There are a number of increasingly important e-channels that retailers can leverage to not only increase sales, but to increase brand awarness. eBay is of course the most established site, but we’re hearing SMB retailers are seeing success with Amazon, Overstock and others.

What are you experiencing? What e-channels are you using and do you see them as helping your brand awarness or as just sales opportunities? Share your thoughts.

Contributed by Lisa Andrews http://www.coresense.com
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A new report from industry analyst firm Aberdeen Group does not bring a lot of optimistic news for RFID proponents.

The report predicts that companies will have trouble in areas such as finding sufficiently experienced RFID (radio-frequency identification) personnel, migrating to the use of biometrics and other new data-collection methods, and scaling RFID to the next level.

One bright note: The survey finds that users no longer see the cost of using RFID as the single most important factor guiding deployment decisions.

(link to article at eWeek.com…)

Contributed by Kim Sapienza http://www.coresense.com
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By James Maguire Across-the-board search engine improvements have resulted in a huge increase in the number of pages that show up for a query. That means it’s more important than ever to know how to keep your site ranking at the top of the list. We found a search engine optimization expert to help us get better results by, well, doing a search.

(link to article at smallbusinesscomputing.com…)

Contributed by Kim Sapienza http://www.coresense.com
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The success of Apple’s iPod has, not surprisingly, spawned a cottage industry of iPod accessories, including Handstands’ iSticky Pad, which grabbed some great pub this week at BusinessWeek Online. Whether or not you believe the world needs an iPod dock that also shells out bathroom toilet tissue (thank you, Atech Flash Technology), there is a tremendous opportunity for the nimble retailer to carve out a business and a bit of the spotlight by hitching its wagon to a popular consumer product, and following that company’s PR team to new and otherwise unavailable press opportunities. Kudos to retailer Handstands for recognizing that its niche business need not portend niche PR results, and for delivering a PR pitch that stuck in the mind of this BusinessWeek Online reporter.

Contributed by Kevin Wolf http://www.toolguypr.com
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Premiums for fire, casualty and burglary insurance on business property are all deductible for tax purposes as trade or business expenses. If a business taxpayer has a self-insurance plan, however, all payments into the self-insurance reserve will not be tax-deductible for purposes; the actual losses incurred by the taxpayer would be the deductions.

(link to article at Entrpreneur.com…)

Contributed by Kim Sapienza http://www.coresense.com
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