Digital Marketing

Sears and Amazon.com both recently came under fire for allowing rings decorated with the Nazi swastika symbol to be posted for sale on their third-party seller sites. While both retailers quickly pulled the items down and issued public apologies, they received a large amount of negative publicity and surely damaged their brand image with many offended customers, perhaps to the point of permanently losing some of them.  

Paris, France -- Digital Social Retail, a division of digital marketing agency Holosfind, is launching a digital convergence platform for the retail industry, integrating innovative technology and centralized management, for real-time streaming of audio and video content and personalized geolocation messaging. After 18 months of development and the signing of a joint venture for the acquisition of technology with the Israeli company Media TV, Digital Social Retail has introduced the Social Retail convergence platform.

Toronto -- PayPal Canada is launching PassPort, a website designed to help small businesses sell internationally. On the PassPort website, entrepreneurs can find export market specific guidance on seasonal sales peaks including holidays and events; cultural customs, taboos and trends; shipping and distribution logistics; currency exchange and fees; and customs procedures and taxes.  

Learn about emerging brands on the cusp of break-out success and formerly solid brands in need of a reset in this exclusive report, More Climbers & Fallers.

Berlin, Germany –- Five leading German retailers are partnering with U.S. shopping app Shopkick. At launch, Shopkick’s German network is comprised of more than 1,400 stores: all Douglas (largest beauty retailer in Germany), Media Markt and Saturn (together the largest consumer electronics retail chain in Germany), OBI (one of the largest do-it-yourself retailers in Germany) and Karstadt (one of the largest department stores in Germany) locations.

St. Petersburg, Fla. –- HSN is offering a range of special events and deals for the 2014 holiday season. The interactive retailer will offer special “Black Friday” sale events on Nov. 7, 14 and 21, and also run its annual “Thanksgifting Weekend” event Thursday, Nov. 27 to Monday, Dec. 1 with special “Doorbuster” sale items.  

Seattle –- VenueLabs is launching a free social listening tool geared for small businesses called AboutLocal. AboutLocal lets small retailers listen to and engage with customers in real time across hundreds of disparate channels.  

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. on Wednesday fired the first retail salvo of the holiday season, announcing that, for the first time ever, it is offering free shipping on all online purchases—no matter the amount—from Oct. 22 through Dec. 20. The free shipping offer comes early in the holiday shopping timeline, reflecting retailers’ concerns about what is expected to be a highly promotional season.