Digital Marketing

Seattle - Starbucks Corp. anticipates record purchases of Starbucks gift cards on Dec. 24, citing the trend for customers to push their gift card purchases later and later. In 2013, more than 2 million Starbucks Cards were purchased in the U.S. and Canada on Christmas Eve, representing nearly 1,500 cards purchased per minute.  

Woonsocket, R.I. – CVS/pharmacy is making it an omnichannel holiday for its customers this year. Consumers can follow @CVS_Extra on Twitter to learn about upcoming promotions and ways to win a variety of gift items through special contests.

Piccing, a “social-shopping” platform, has raised $3.62 million from undisclosed investors, the company announced.

The company’s web and iOS app lets users upload or bookmark images — the latter, Pinterest-style — wherein they can add up to five hotspots tied to items found in each image, thereby helping to make those images “shoppable.”

Users browsing or searching via the platform can click on any image’s hotspots — dubbed “piccs” — to buy the product or see similar items.

By Gary Lee, InReality   As 2014 comes to a close, one thing is clear—traditional retailing is under fire.    Consumers, not brands or retailers, now hold the reigns of power. And, to survive, marketers in brick-and-mortar must take a fresh approach to physical retailing, and carve out a unique value proposition for the in-store experience, one worthy of the consumer’s precious time.  

Shoppers at Rite Aid stores in New York and Los Angeles will soon get a dose of 3-D along with their prescriptions as the retailer rolls out the first of its high-tech customer kiosks at 200 retail locations.

London, U.K. – Phone calls may seem obsolete in this text- and online-based age, but U.S. consumers are still making the call when they purchase items. According to a new study from call-based marketing automation company ResponseTap, consumers in the U.S. are more than twice as likely to make a phone call when making a purchase, as opposed to purely transacting online.   

Gift cards and clothing top the lists of holiday shoppers this year, according to a new Harris Poll conducted for Macy's.

New York – The top holiday purchase items this year range from the less personal to the very personal. According to a recent online survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Macy’s among nearly 1,700 U.S. adults 18 and older who are holiday shoppers, gift cards (61%) and clothing (52%) top the list when it comes to the types of gifts that holiday shoppers plan to buy this season.    Other popular holiday items include: