Digital Marketing

NEW YORK - Macy’s is enhancing its Black Friday promotions by giving away  a million dollars in prizes in stores nationwide during doorbuster hours. Beginning at 6 p.m. local time on Thanksgiving Day, customers will have a chance to win big, scoring digital gift codes that can be used instantly for Black Friday purchases.  

St. Paul, Minnesota - Shopping center developer and manager Paster Enterprises has rebranded to Paster Properties, and has debuted a new look and 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.

LYNDHURST, N.J. - Citizen Watch Company of America opened its first-ever global flagship, in Times Square, New York City.    The 1,300-sq.-ft. foot store is designed to appeal to amateur and serious watch enthusiasts alike, with interactive and hands-on displays and exclusive offerings, Multiple 360- degree cases allow for shopping from either side of the case and provide easy movement throughout the store.  

  NEW YORK - Senior middle-market retail executives are cautiously optimistic about the upcoming holiday season.  Fifty-five percent of executives anticipate their total holiday sales will increase by 6% or more in 2014, as compared to only a third last year, according to an annual study conducted by CIT Group.  

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.   

Seattle – Amazon.com will start offering Black Friday deals on Friday, Nov. 21, and adding new deals as often as every 10 minutes for eight straight days. Amazon will introduce three Deals of the Day starting on Thanksgiving at midnight, as well as three more on Black Friday, in addition to thousands of limited-time Lightning Deals.   

Duluth, Minn. – Specialty fashion retailer Maurices has partnered with interactive video provider Zentrick to upgrade its "How to Wear It" and "What to Wear: Summer 2014" online video campaigns. By integrating interactive elements into six 'look'-inspired videos, Zentrick and Maurices logged 15.2% engagement and a 7.4% click-through rate (CTR).   

Portland, Ore. – Seven in 10 (71%) consumers intend to purchase at least one gift card  from an online website or mobile website/app during the upcoming holiday season, while 74% will buy at least one digital gift card. According to new data from POS solutions provider InComm, 85% of respondents age 18-35 agree that they’re likely to purchase at least one digital gift card this holiday season  

San Jose, Calif. - Cross-border shoppers (those for whom more than 10% of their online spend is cross-border), spend approximately twice as much as consumers who only shop domestically. New research from PayPal and Ipsos, which investigated the online and cross-border shopping habits of more than 17,500 consumers in 22 countries, shows 30% of U.S. online consumers shop across borders.