Posted By rmay - February 14, 2012
It is traditional for loyalty programs to encourage customers to earn and use points for rewards, but recently more brands are trying to create better connections with valued customers with surprise rewards such as exclusive premieres or shopping invites.
Select members of Best Buy’s Reward Zone loyalty program were surprised with tickets to an exclusive preview of “Twilight Eclipse.” The approach was segmented to high-value customers, who may be big spenders,
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Posted By rmay - January 15, 2012
Have you ever wandered around a store and felt intimated by the many options and cringe at the thought of trying on what seems like dozens of outfits before finding the perfect one? Or spent hours browsing clothes online only to decide that it probably won’t fit right anyway and end up purchasing nothing?
Whether you are shopping in-store or online, finding the perfect fit of a cute shirt or pair
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Posted By rmay - January 9, 2012
EBay’s PayPal is testing in-store payments in five Home Depot stores, as PayPal attempts to expand into the offline world of brick and mortar stores. The in-store payment system allows shoppers to make purchases without cash or a physical credit card, and instead use PayPal by typing in their phone number and personal identification number into a payment terminal.
Implications: Electronic payment systems will continue to expand and improve throughout 2012.
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Posted By rmay - January 4, 2012
When IKEA spotted almost 100,000 likes on a Facebook page called “I Wanna Have a Sleepover In Ikea,” it sparked the idea to create a competition for Facebook fans to have the chance to be a part of a sleepover at the Essex IKEA store in the UK. A lucky 100 people were selected to spend the night to test out products, enjoy manicures, or talk to a sleep expert.
Implications:
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Posted By rmay - December 21, 2011
Kraft Jell-O is testing a vending machine that provides free samples of Temptations, a Jell-O line targeting adults. The machine only serves adults by using Intel’s facial recognition optics and software to identify children. When a child is detected, the vending machine tells the child to step away.
Implications: Facial recognition technology can be used to directly interact with a specific target audience. Jell-O is reaching adults by giving them the
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Posted By gsteen - December 7, 2011
On Black Friday this year, brick and mortar sales totaled $11.4 billion, the largest amount ever spent on the shopping holiday.
Online sales the same day were $816 million, only 7% the volume of in-store sales.
As often as writers, analysts and industry observers imply that brick and mortar retail is a dying model, I sure don't see much evidence of that. It's growing and still composes a large majority of total
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Posted By Ivy Chang - November 17, 2011
Text messaging is the easiest way to communicate especially with mobile phones becoming an everyday necessity in the lives of consumers. According to eMarketer, approximately 75.7% of the U.S. population is using a mobile phone.
SMS marketing is a rising trend for retailers especially during the holiday season. Retailers are looking for ways to drive in-store traffic and texting is becoming the most efficient way to communicate with consumers.
SMS programs usually
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Posted By Ivy Chang - November 3, 2011
The holiday season is notorious for long lines at the check-out counter, overly crowded malls, and the likelihood of the item you are searching for being sold out. It’s a big endeavor, but if you’re looking for the best deals of the year, you will have to stick it out or look for other ways to get the job done.
A PriceGrabber study shows that 13 percent of holiday shoppers are
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Posted By gsteen - October 26, 2011
EBay recently launched a store that is always open and replaces store employees with smartphones.
The eBay Inspiration Shop was designed by famed store decorator Jonathan Adler. Shoppers simply peruse a physical display, scan barcodes with their smartphone, enter their payment information and have the items shipped to their homes.
Implication: As the holiday shopping season approaches, help your customers avoid lines and other hassles by enabling them to make purchases independently
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Posted By eknab - September 8, 2011
We are seeing them drop like flies. Groupon, Yelp, Facebook. Oh my!
It may seem strange that daily deals services on platforms like these are seeing less activity or nixing their services altogether. Back in the good ol' days, in 2010 and early 2011, sites like Groupon and Living Social were a hit.
Shoppers loved these services, which boasted drastically reduced prices for shoppers at restaurants, clothing shops and other businesses.
But now
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