Coupons/ Rebates/ Pricing

HAMPSHIRE, U.K. — Retailers are predicted to spend $55 billion on mobile marketing by 2015, which is almost double the $28 billion expected this year, according to a new study by Juniper Research.

CHICAGO — One-in-five consumers between the ages of 35 years and 54 years are choosing products due to a loyalty card discount, SymphonyIRI Group reported Wednesday as part of its Q4 2012 MarketPulse survey. And almost one-third are forsaking their preferred brands due to a sale price. The survey found that shopper sentiment dropped to its lowest point since Q3 2011.

New York -- In a Thursday report by the New York Post citing unnamed sources, the publication said that J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson is pushing some of its vendors to inflate their pricing so that the department store’s retail pricing appears lower than it actually is.

Sources told The Post that the plan includes putting up signs and fixturing to display fabricated retail pricing, while the merchandise is then tagged with J.C. Penney’s own lower prices.

Hampshire, U.K. -- Retailers are predicted to spend $55 billion on mobile marketing by 2015, which is almost double the $28 billion expected this year, according to a new study by Juniper Research.

When Target recently announced its new online price matching policy, I’m sure I wasn’t the only retail analyst whose first thought was: “This could be a pretty big deal.” While a number of retailers (including Target itself) have experimented with similar price-matching or pricing guarantee programs in the past, this new policy takes things to a new level.

By TJ Person, [email protected]

Using a smartphone for everyday transactions is becoming commonplace, with an estimated 86 million Americans using their smartphone to shop every day. They use it to pay; they use it for specials; and they use it to redeem coupons.  

Stamford, Conn. -- Quick Response (QR) codes are gaining increasing acceptance among consumers in North America and Europe, particularly among younger consumers, according to a new research report commissioned by Pitney Bowes.

QR code usage as reported by more than 5,000 consumers surveyed stands at 15% on average and at 27% for consumers 18 to 34 years old, according to “QR Code Use” study.

New York -- A report released Wednesday by MasterCard revealed that Canadian retail sales, which grew just 1.6% in December, trailed the U.S., which also posted less than stellar results for the month.

Sales in the U.S. advanced 2.4% in December.

Canada’s results were particularly disappointing, considering the country’s December sales grew 4.3% in December 2011, according to MasterCard’s SpendingPulse report.

In December, the retailers that increased their page counts were balanced out by those that decreased their page counts. However, of those retailers that did reduce their page counts, only two also reduced the number of inserts distributed by more than 2%. 

Keeping with their November strategy, Walmart continued its aggressive promotions this month, and has shown a significant increase in both drop of flyer and pages per flyer. They showed the highest growth compared to other advertisers in page counts, and the second highest growth in number of flyers.