Coupons/ Rebates/ Pricing

Walmart continues to expand its view of Black Friday and is encouraging shoppers to do the same by rethinking the practice of waiting in line on Black Friday to secure limited quantities of merchandise.

The dishes from Thanksgiving dinner will barely be dry when Best Buy stores open at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 28, to treat shoppers to an early wave of doorbuster deals.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in October 2013 vs. October 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. CVS and Walgreens increased the number of circular pages seen in October 2014; up respectively by 18% and 11%. Walgreens added 13% more halloween candy promotions, where as CVS added 9% in October comparable. Walgreens used an attractive “Save on Treats” candy promotional page in each October circular, nicely consolidating candy promotions into concise seasonal sections.

Minneapolis --The competition for the holiday shopper continues with the news that Target Corp. is kicking off the holiday season extra early this year, with plans to offer early access to Black Friday deals for one-day only on Nov. 10, a pre-sale on Nov. 26, and a 6 p.m. store opening on Thanksgiving evening.

New York --  Chinese E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings sold about $2 billion worth of goods on its websites within approximately the first hour of its annual shopping extravaganza.    This is the sixth year Alibaba has celebrated Singles Day, or 11.11 (named after the date, 11/11), a 24-hour deep-discount festival designed to boost sales during an otherwise weak period in China's sales calendar.   

Teen specialty retailer Rue21 has launched a new juniors plus size division called Rue+ the company said its customers have been asking for.

The Rue+ division is intended to serve as a destination for trendy yet affordable plus size apparel and accessories that will inspire and empower plus sized girls to feel confident in how they look, according to the company. The product offering will be available at Rue21.com and in 22 of the company’s 1,100 stores nationwide.

For the second year in a row, Sports Authority said most of its stores would open at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving Day.

Customers at Target are being given expanded opportunities to engage with the retailer this holiday season thanks to extended hours and early access to promotional offers.

Recently, I participated in a strategic conference that included several sessions on how to effectively use advertising and promotion to reach moms, millennials, multiculturals and other shopper segments. Not surprisingly, significant emphasis was placed on the use of emerging digital and mobile media. But each session also reinforced that traditional media including television, radio, retail feature ads, and Free Standing Insert (FSI) coupons should not be undervalued.

Barnes & Noble is giving thanks to veterans this holiday season with a one-day, in-store-only Veterans Day offer of 15% off Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK and NOOK GlowLight devices. 

This offer is available to veterans, active duty military members and their families on Veterans Day, Tuesday, November 11, at all Barnes & Noble stores nationwide.