Coupons/ Rebates/ Pricing

Cambridge, Mass. — New customers whose first transaction involves a discount or special offer are 50% less likely to return to make a second purchase. According to a new study from loyalty technology provider Coherent Path Inc., customers who visit an e-commerce site for the first time and make a purchase at full-price are more than twice as likely to make a second visit.   

Memphis, Tenn. – Fred’s Inc. swung to a net loss of $10.4 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to net income of $7.3 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Costs associated with closing five underperforming stores in the third quarter, and an anticipated 47 stores in the fourth quarter, contributed to the loss, which exceeded Wall Street projections.

New York - Twitter keeps on coming up with new ways to let advertisers connect with consumers—and now it’s moving into the brick-and-mortar space. In its first  On Tuesday, the social media giant launched a pilot for a new feature called Twitter Offers, which enables brands and companies to create card-linked promotions and share them directly with Twitter users. The user can redeem the discount simply by paying with the synced card in the retailer’s physical store or online shop.

By Christopher Birkholm    As the official kick-off of the holiday season approaches, your core online holiday campaigns are all wrapped up and ready for holiday shoppers. This year, it is expected that online consumer spending will rise 16%  over last year to approximately $60 billion, according to the comScore forecast. Desktop commerce is expected to jump nearly 14% while mobile commerce could see an increase of nearly 25%.  

Wine with screw top lids was bad enough for purists, now retailers are filling their shelves with wine-based products package in cans.

NEW YORK - Fitch expects U.S. sales growth to modestly improve in the coming holiday season, with retail sales (excluding auto) expected to grow at 3%-4% in November/December versus 2.8% year to date. Fitch expects online sales will grow in the 12%-14% range during the fourth quarter, in line with year to date levels.

Black Friday is known for great deals, but a new study shows that consumers may want to add one more item to their holiday shopping carts.  

Product protection plan leader Asurion recently surveyed consumers and nearly one-third of the items they purchased last Black Friday broke in less than a year. In addition, almost half (45%) of those surveyed plan to replace at least one damaged, lost or stolen item this Black Friday.  

Austin, Texas - Three in four Americans have made an impulse purchase. According to a new CreditCards.com report, nearly 90% of millennials said they had made an impulse purchase, compared to just 56% of seniors. And in an interesting finding,  men were nearly three times more likely than women to impulse buy while “intoxicated,” while women were twice as likely as men to impulse buy while “sad.”   The most common emotions at the time of purchase? “Excited” and “bored.”