Digital Marketing

Pittsburgh -- American Eagle Outfitters said Friday that it has begun a search for a marketing communications agency partner or partners.

The scope of services, according to the retailer, will include traditional and digital media strategy, planning and execution, as well as collaboration in creative development for its American Eagle Outfitters, Aerie and 77kids brands in North America and internationally.

“Hiring an agency is a natural evolution in the growth of the AEO family of brands,” said Michael Leedy, CMO.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS/pharmacy has launched a new service on its CVS.com website to assist military service members, veterans and their families who need to transfer their prescriptions to a pharmacy that lets them continue using their Tricare prescription insurance coverage.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — In what might become an additional indicator as to the power consumers can wield across retail through social media outlets, Wegmans on Wednesday reinstated Alec Baldwin as the company's spokesman.

Wegmans had pulled its Baldwin holiday advertising campaign in response to consumer complaints about Baldwin's behavior on an American Airlines flight Dec. 6, a flight from which he was removed for refusing to turn his cell phone off.

By Chris Watland, [email protected]

By this point, most chain stores have embraced digital marketing to reach customers through regular email communications and with a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter. And retail already outpaces many other industries in its sophisticated collection of customer purchase and loyalty program data.

Minneapolis -- After a slew of online orders were cancelled in November and December when Best Buy couldn’t keep up with demand, the company issued the following statement on Tuesday:

“What was wrong is that there was an unacceptable delay between order confirmations and cancellations, and for that we are very sorry,” said Susan Busch, senior director of Best Buy’s public relations. “It’s important to note that this was a rare situation based on a high volume of orders over a short period of time.”

Kate Berg has been name president of Collective Bias, the rapidly growing social shopper marketing firm based in Bentonville, Ark. Berg will focus on organizational development at the firm which has grown to more than 30 employees in the roughly two years since it was founded and split her time between Bentonville and New York where an expanding roster of clients include Meredith Corp. and the Duane Reade drug chain.

C’mon people. Christmas comes the same time every year and every year there are those scrambling to make last-minute purchases. Walmart is looking to appeal to this shopper segment with some interesting solutions that leverage its multichannel capabilities and give new meaning to the phrase “last minute shopping.”

The company’s Pick Up Today service was being aggressively promoted with email marketing and social media efforts to remind gift-givers products ordered online by noon on Christmas Eve would be available for pick up in store by 6 p.m.

San Luis Obispo, Calif. -- An e-commerce solution for branded manufacturers on Friday released a new forecast on how retail shopping will be influenced by the Internet, in addition to mobile and social networking.