Cross-Merchandising

In an effort to generate traffic and increase sales at its physical stores, Barnes & Noble has announced a secret weapon against Amazon.com this Black Friday.

Barnes & Noble recruited 100 prominent authors — including Donna Tartt, David Mitchell, Dan Brown, E. L. James, Jeff Kinney, George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton — to each sign roughly 5,000 copies of their latest books. The company will distribute and sell the 500,000 signed books among its retail stores only. The signed books will not be available on the company’s website.

CROSSMARK veteran Jim Norred was named president of the sales and marketing services company’s Marketing Solutions Group.

Norred most recently served as EVP of corporate development with responsibility for client services, business development, insights and corporate marketing. Prior to that, he served as the company’s CIO. He also has served as president of G2, an integrated marketing joint venture that ultimately was acquired by WPP in 2008.

Denver – An estimated 28% of consumers plan to do most of their holiday shopping at mass retailers, compared to 26% who will frequent online retailers. According to an ongoing shopper behavior study conducted by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research, free shipping continues to be the most popular offer for holiday shoppers, with 58% of shoppers reporting they expect to take advantage of it this holiday season.   

Winn-Dixie is partnering with the Hershey Co. to outfit stores with a “Candy Experience” section: a new concept that has replaced the traditional candy aisle in a Winn-Dixie in Baton Rouge, La.  

Tests show that the new candy section, best described as a “store within a store,” can lift confection category sales for retailers by strong double digits. The candy experience sits at the front of the store, a dramatically different location from an aisle where consumers must hunt around for the candy shelves.

New York -- During the 2014 holiday season, marketers will run more campaigns on Facebook than any other social network. According to new data from Experian Marketing Services, 49% of global marketers who run social-media campaigns will do so via organic Facebook posts, and 34% plan to use paid ads or boosted posts.   

Mississauga, Canada -- Canadian shoppers are off to an earlier start with holiday shopping. UPS Canada's annual Black Friday survey conducted by Leger shows that one-third of Canadians plan to take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.    The findings forecast that 20% of Canadian consumers will travel to the U.S. to shop for Black Friday deals and 32% of Canadian consumers will make online Cyber Monday purchases from U.S. retailers.   

Build-A-Bear Workshop has transformed its stores into Santa's Workshops to provide toys for all the children on the "nice list," with the help of Santa's reindeer team. The company said it is introducing eight lovable reindeer and extending play beyond plush with the launch of an exclusive holiday app: Santa's Merry Mission. Guests are encouraged to visit buildabear.com/teamsanta to download the app and learn about each of Santa's merry reindeer.

Perhaps the most aggressive traffic and sales generating promotional effort this Black Friday comes courtesy of Old Navy.

The Old Navy division of Gap, Inc., plans to open its more than 800 stores at 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving day and will price all merchandise at half off for 31 hours until stores close at 11 p.m. on Black Friday. And, if the 50% markdown isn’t sufficient to motivate shoppers, the retailer plans generate store traffic by giving away $1 million to one lucky customer and 1,000 $200 gift certificates.

Dollar General is leveraging the expansive reach of its more than 11,500 stores this holiday season to benefit several organizations aligned with the retailer’s mission of serving others.

The retailer is partnering with St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital’s Thanks and Giving campaign and the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Foundation’s “You’re the Hero” toy drive, as well as other local toy drives, to offer customers an opportunity to give back this holiday season.
 

The Grommet is partnering with a store in Boston to launch a “pop-in” shop on Nov. 20 as part of an effort to bridge the gap between e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores.

With so many consumers on the hunt for unique holiday gifts, the Grommet said it wants shoppers to be able to touch, test and purchase the company’s offerings. The “pop-in” Grommet shop will be located within Boston boutique Michelle Willey and be open from Nov. 20 through the end of December.