Marketing Tactics

Lululemon has opened a new concept store in Toronto that’s unlike anything the retailer has done to date.   The 10,000-sq.-ft. store is part retail, part health food café, part gallery — and part practice studio, according to a report by torontolife.com. It even boasts a trailer.    For more, and photos, click here.

The real retailer winners are those that truly “listen” to their customers, and then use learned details to motivate consumers to shop.   By perfecting this practice, Amazon.com has earned the highest amount of mentions and awareness across social networks, and Tiffany & Co. was the most passionately and positively discussed brand.  

The fuel pump is becoming an increasingly critical customer touch point.

Often overlooked in the omnichannel experience, convenience store fuel pumps are a prime way to reach on-the-go shoppers. Extending their partnership with NCR, Rutter’s Farm is adding a new outdoor payment terminal to reach this time-pressed customer segment.

A new report makes the case for taking a standardized approach to rapidly rollout of solar rooftop installations may    An analysis by the Retail Industry Leaders Association and The Solar Foundation found that Whole Foods Market’s approach to rooftop solar installations in multiple facilities could be a valuable model for other retailers to consider.  

Coming to the local mall — Amazon?
 
Amazon plans to open dozens of pop-up stores in malls across the nation, according to Business Insider.
 
The temporary stores, whose total could reach 100 next year, will showcase and sell the company's devices, particularly its Echo home speaker, the report said.
   

The man who founded the Crazy Eddie consumer electronics chain has died at the age of 68.   Eddie Antar grew his company from one location in Brooklyn, New York, to the largest electronics retailer in the New York metro area in the 1980s, with 43 stores in four states.  The chain gained national fame for its television commercials which featured a maniacal-looking pitchman (which many people mistakenly took to be Antar) screaming at the end of the spot that Crazy Eddie’s prices were  “insane.”  

Saks Fifth Avenue’s new store in New York City is unlike any other the retailer has opened to date.

Located at Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan, the 86,000-sq.-ft. store is decidedly smaller than most Saks’ locations. It feels more like a boutique than a department store, with some traditional departments, such as handbags eliminated. (Handbags and certain other products are grouped by brand as opposed to category.) It also boasts such new services as a “power lunch” offering.