Digital Marketing

For more than half a century, Chain Store Age’s annual SPECS conference has delivered one of the retail industry’s most important and impactful events.        The 2017 event, to be held March 12-14 at the Gaylord Palms, Kissimmee, Florida, will cover a wide range of emerging and evolving issues, focusing on must-see innovations and essential information about trends, topics and technologies that will be impacting the industry for many years to come.   

With only days to go in the 2016 holiday shopping season, online desktop spending continues to rise.   For the holiday season-to-date, $55.2 billion has been spent online, marking a 13% increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week, Dec. 12-18, posted a strong 15% growth in online sales, marking $7.6 billion in desktop spending during the last full week before Christmas.  

For the past five years, retailers and millennials have been in a very one-sided relationship.    Big budgets were spent to capture and engage with this highly sought-after group of consumers through intelligent advertising, a carefully curated social media presence, and viral marketing campaigns. And in true millennial fashion, the response was indifferent.    But retailers, it’s no longer all about millennials.   

For more than half a century, Chain Store Age’s annual SPECS conference has delivered one of the retail industry’s most important and impactful events.   

The union that represents cargo pilots who fly Amazon goods has launched online ads that warn staffing problems could lead to delayed deliveries.       The ads, set to run on Facebook and Google, link to a site called “Can Amazon Deliver?” that outlines alleged staffing issues at two cargo airlines from which Amazon leases planes, reported ReCode.  

http://embed.wistia.com/deliveries/7ad5f292105fd929c54377f967a03b1ac4a10047/my-file.mp4

Starbucks has launched its first-ever animated web series — with the help of some veteran comedy writers. 

Digital touchpoints are accelerating the pace of retail from all perspec-tives, including consumer demands.    A new report from digital benchmarking firm L2 identifies "must-have" omnichannel features that retailers can deploy to meet rising consumer expectations. The study evaluates the approach and performance of 96 re-tail brands with regards to key omnichannel pre-requisites.   

Best Buy pulled out its latest weapon in the battle to win last-minute holiday shoppers: free shipping.     For the third year in a row, Best Buy will offer free expedited shipping in the final stretch of the holiday season. Starting Thursday, Dec. 15 through 11:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 21, BestBuy’s online shoppers will automatically have their shipping upgraded to two-day shipping on almost everything.