Digital Marketing

Seattle – Starbucks wants customers to feel wonderful this holiday season. From now through Jan. 5, 2015, customers who pay using a Starbucks Card or Starbucks mobile app, can enter the Starbucks It’s a Wonderful Card Ultimate Giveaway.

The omnichannel promotion offers the chance to win one of 482,000 instant prizes, and 10 customers in the U.S. will win the prize of Starbucks for Life, which is one free food or beverage item from participating stores every day for the next 30 years.

Evansville, Ind. – Net income dipped to $10.8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2014 from $10.9 million the same period the prior fiscal year. Net sales fared better, climbing 7% to $254.69 million from $235.77 million, ahead of previously issued guidance.

SAN BRUNO, Calif.- It was a very busy Monday—Cyber Monday to be more specific— for Walmart. The discounter said  that Cyber Monday 2014 (Dec. 1) was the biggest online day in its history for orders. Customers viewed more than 1.5 billion pages on Walmart.com between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

Chicago - Overall marketing and advertising budgets at leading U.S. retailers will rise by 1.% this year, compared to a decline of .98% in 2013, with 72% of retailers expecting to spend about the same amount on marketing and advertising compared to last year, according to the BDO Retail Compass Survey of CMOs, by BDO USA.

At a time when food pantries have a critical shortage of supplies and increased demand from those in need, Walmart is making a major pledge to help the hungry.

Just like many of the products sold in its stores, TJX Companies is offering a limited duration holiday helpline staffed by folks who presume to know the perfect gift for anonymous recipients.

T.J. Maxx and Marshalls this week said they are bringing back their “Holiday Gift Hotline” to combat the issue they identified in a survey of people buying uninventive gifts. The hotline is a free service only available for limited hours Dec. 4-7 and is designed to provide shoppers with a variety of gift ideas to help them give gifts people really want to receive.

Cyber Monday online sales were up 8.7% as of 3 p.m. EST over the same period on Cyber Monday 2013, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, with mobile traffic accounting for 38.6%  of all online traffic, up 28.8% over last year.   Mobile sales accounted for 21.3% of all online sales on Cyber Monday, an increase of 29.3% year over year.    Here are the key drivers behind the Cyber Monday trends, according to IBM:   

New York - Across the country, there was strong support for local businesses on Small Business Saturday, with shopping up 14.9% from last year, according to the results from the Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey, released today by American Express and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).    

New York - Count Walmart as not falling victim to the Black Friday weekend blues. The discounter is reporting a strong holiday  weekend -- including record online sales.  

By Kosha Gada