News Round-up: Niche Retailers, Canon 5D Mark II Video, and Shutterfly/Amazon Promotion

For this Christmas week Monday, here’s a collection of links and information about scrapbooking-related topics:

Niche retailers doing alright during holidays?

Two different news articles recently have highlighted niche or specialty retailers (which is what scrapbook stores are, of course) that are doing well during the holidays.

• 5 Stores Bucking The Sales Slump – CNN
• Specialty Stores Get Holiday Gift – Orlando Sentinel

I’d be interested to hear from store owners and shoppers (at both scrapbook and other specialty stores) in the comments about whether these articles reflect their experiences this holiday season.

Shutterfly and Amazon Teaming Up

Shutterfly has already been teaming with Target to promote and deliver its photo prints. Now it is teaming with Amazon to give away free photo calendars to Amazon customers who purchase select qualifying photo equipment and accessories. It would be wonderful if scrapbook companies or stores could figure out how to leverage this sort of promotion.

Canon 5D Mark II Video

One of the most exciting things about the new Canon 5D Mark II is its video capabilities. If this video doesn’t make you want to run right out and buy one, then I don’t know what will! (Hey, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II 21.1MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera with EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens
is only $3499 at Amazon…I’ll just dig that change out of my sofa and click “buy”.) To see the video in a larger window, visit Chris MacAskill’s SmugMug Gallery.