Digital Marketing

Consumers love to shop and love using social media, but somehow the two passions are not connecting.
 
Twitter, which has been piloting an embedded buy button in tweets since September 2014, is abandoning the effort. Recent studies from Forrester and GlobalWebIndex indicate generally low consumer usage rates for social buy buttons, which are also offered by platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram.
 

The current school year is just ending, but consumers are already looking ahead to the fall.

According to a new survey of 300 U.S. adults who plan on leading their families’ back-to-school shopping efforts from social engagement firm CrowdTap, blogs and social media conversations rival traditional advertising formats (e.g. magazine circulars and TV ads) when it comes to what drives back-to-school purchases.

Walmart is reviving a familiar icon to be the symbol of its low-price marketing.

The discounter announced it is bringing back its yellow smiley image, which has been in hibernation for some 10 years. The image can already be seen in some digital advertising and will expand to television ads and select in-store signage next week.

Storytelling elements provide an immersive brand experience at Ugg’s new global store concept, at Disney Springs, Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The brand’s Californian roots, connections to nature and modernist vibe all come into play in the 2,828-sq.-ft. space, which has a relaxed, soothing ambience.

Cotton lovers in the Boston area have a two-day opportunity to shop an in-store collection before it becomes available online.
 
Rue La La has partnered with promotional group Cotton Inc. for a second year. To kick off the collaborations, the brands will launch a custom-developed pop-up shop. The co-branded #SummerofCotton pop-up shop will be located on Newbury Street in Boston for two days, June 4-5.
 

Online home furnishings retailer Wayfair Inc. is rolling out an in-house-developed display advertising platform that will deliver tailored messages and collect customer data.

Known as Magellan, the platform was built in-house by Wayfair’s engineering, data science, and marketing teams. Magellan leverages enhanced bidding models that allow the flexibility to continually enhance targeting capabilities over time. This targeting also lets third-party Wayfair Media Solutions users extend the reach of their advertising programs.

From hyperlocal social media intelligence to mobile survey creation, this month’s crop of startups is filling niche spaces that can have a big impact on a retailer’s business. Learn about an augmented reality platform that’s elevating the online experience, a social referral startup that makes it easy to spread rewarding word-of-mouth recommendations and an analytics company that helps retailers and CPG companies get the most out of their online and transaction-level customer data.

SurveyMe