Digital Marketing

Plano, Texas – J.C. Penney Company is launching a new online sports store on its e-commerce site that will be powered by Fanatics, an online retailer of officially licensed sports merchandise. Fanatics, which operates the e-commerce platform for hundreds of collegiate and professional sports teams, leagues and media sites, will provide fans with a selection of team sports apparel and merchandise at JCPenney.com, offering more than 300,000 licensed products spanning all the major sports leagues.

Los Angeles – Guitar Center is launching the fourth installment of its omnichannel “Guitar Center’s Singer-Songwriter,” offering aspiring singer-songwriters across the country the chance to take their careers to the next level, on Sep. 1. The winner of Guitar Center's Singer-Songwriter 4 will have the opportunity to record a four-song E.P with producer Don Was, perform to a national television audience on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” new gear, $25,000 cash and more.

New York – Vertical specialty apparel retailer Ugg for Men is launching a global omnichannel advertising campaign in partnership with NFL quarterback Tom Brady. The campaign, “This is Ugg,” launches Sept. 2 and features a series of three 60-second video spots that will air on YouTube and TV.

The campaign will also feature a concurrent print component. Los Angeles-based M&C Saatchi served as creative agency.

Plug and Play helps bring together retailers and startups who offer specific technology and expertise that can relieve their pain points. In each issue of our Customer Disruption e-newsletter, we will provide you a brief Q&A with the CEO of a Plug and Play startup, explaining how their company assists retailers in succeeding in today’s disruptive customer environment.

This week’s CEO Corner features three questions with Saurin Shah, CEO of Sift.

What does your company do?

Chicago -- Men’s lifestyle retailer Haberdash will unveil a new retail "Convergence" concept at its store at the Roosevelt Collection in Chicago's South Loop.

The "Convergence" model integrates the company's daily e-commerce operations into the store location; photo studio, pick, pack and ship and client services.

By A.J. Clark, Thermopylae

Nordstrom Inc. has become the first retailer to launch the Like2Buy platform, which allows Nordstrom.com customers to directly purchase items featured on the retailer’s Instagram page. The commerce-enablement of visually oriented social platforms, such as Instagram, Pinterest and Vine, is an inevitable development as social media becomes more focused on photos and videos and less on text. The preference most Millennials have for visually oriented social media reinforces the value that commerce enabling these platforms has for retailers.

RetailMeNot, a provider of digital offers, has unveiled an upgraded, redesigned app for iPhone and Android phones.

New York -- Gap is returning to television. The brand debuted four commercials that will air on TV, in cinema, in stores and online. Created by Academy Award-nominated director David Fincher, the films were created with Wieden+Kennedy New York as part of Gap's new marketing campaign, Dress Normal. The TV campaign launches in the United States and United Kingdom in the week of Sept. 1.

Destination XL president and CEO David Levin credited increased traffic and higher conversion rates for helping drive sales in the second quarter.

Although charges related to the decision by Destination XL to exit the Sears Canada Direct business resulted in the retailer’s net loss growing to $4 million in the quarter, from $1.6 million a year earlier, total sales fared better, increasing 6% to $103.7 million, compared with $98 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2013. Same-store sales rose 7%.