Marketing Tactics

Move over Sephora, fast-growing Ulta Beauty is about to give you some competition.   Ulta will open its first-ever outpost in Manhattan, on the city’s tony Upper East Side.     The retailer leased a 12,000-sq.ft. space on the ground floor of 184 E. 86th St., Commercial Observer reported, with Cushman & Wakefield brokering the deal with Ulta. A Sephora is located on the same block.   

Holiday 2016 is proving to be both an opportunity and a challenge for retailers, as they’re faced with catering to the behaviors and preferences of multiple generations of shoppers. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Generation Z (children ages 10-17) consumers have a significant and growing influence on household spending. And as a result, new trends are emerging this holiday season, including the record mobile app purchases we saw on Black Friday/Thanksgiving weekend.  

The first standalone store dedicated to actress Sarah Jessica Parker’s branded collection of shoes and accessories.    

An unknown donor brought holiday cheer to some Walmart customers in Pennsylvania.     A mystery person under the name "Santa B" paid off $46,265.59 in layaway items at Walmart’s store in Everett, Pennsylvania, CNBC reported. The amount covered the balances on 149 layaway accounts.    

Restoration Hardware reported better-than-expected earnings and sales for the third quarter, but the upscale home furnishings retailer cut its full-year outlook amid slow sales of its holiday collection.    The company also said that its name will change in January to RH, which is the same as its stock ticker.   Restoration Hardware reported net income of $2.5 million. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were 19 cents per share.  

Among the retail strategies employed by Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores to turn around its business, the store-within-a-store concept might rank as the most inventive.   Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores have been cropping up inside existing Ace locations around the country (and in some cases, built from the ground up as a combo store).   The latest example of this is taking place in Santa Paula, California, inside the Heritage Ace Hardware located at 568 Suite C West Main Street.  

Town administrators in Newnan, Georgia, have proposed offering incentives to owners of local shopping centers to re-invigorate them.   Municipal staff this week invited a group of community leaders to brainstorm about what could be done with the number of dilapidated centers in Newnan. Obstacles preventing owners from re-investing, the group said, included lack of cash flow, fear of selling due to capital gains taxes, and a reluctance to invest until neighboring properties improved.   

A Florida-based supermarket company tops J.D. Power’s 2016 U.S. Pharmacy Study.   Publix Pharmacy, the in-store pharmacy at Publix Super Markets, came out on top in the J.D. Power report, a customer satisfaction benchmark study that provides pharmacy-specific performance comparisons among brick-and-mortar pharmacies.