Loyalty Marketing

eBay is stepping up its game in the online price war competition, and taking aim at low-cost rivals Walmart and Amazon, among others.   Starting Tuesday, eBay launched its Price Match Guarantee on more than 50,000 deals in the United States. As the name suggests, the program promises that an eligible deal will be the best price available online, or eBay will match the lower price found on a competitor’s website.   

Consumer reliance on mobility throughout their shopping journey presents a huge opportunity for retailers to engage shoppers.    This is according to “Mobile Shopping: User Acquisition Trends and Benchmarks 2017,” a report from mobile app marketing provider Liftoff. The study analyzed 26.9 billion ad impressions across 4.8 million app installs between April 2016 and April 2017.  

Reading business news and talking to retailers, I often hear about marketers’ disappointment in not reaching their email marketing goals. It’s become a real issue that they try to solve by sending more appealing emails with better offers more often. But still, it’s an uphill battle. Why? Because retailers aren’t really missing goals with email; the truth is that you can’t look at email as a stand-alone agent any longer.   Today’s Elusive Shopper

Not only is user-generated content (UCG) the go-to source for 90% of shoppers making a purchase — it outranks all other forms of marketing.   This is according to “Hearing the Voice of the Consumer: UCG and the Commerce Experience,” a report from TurnTo and executed by Ipsos. the report represents responses from more than 1,000 U.S. shoppers who made an online purchase in the past 12 months.  

It may only be mid-June, but retailers nationwide are already eyeing their share of almost $800 billion in estimated back-to-school sales.   Store shelves — both physical and virtual — are already being stocked with this year’s hottest apparel, school supplies, electronics and dorm essentials, all in hopes of luring early bird shoppers. However, beefing up inventory isn’t enough to guarantee a successful back-to-school shopping season.  

An electronics giant might is eyeing a program that could give it a leg up on online rival Amazon.  

Amazon is giving shoppers another reason to sign up for Prime—and a reason not to use credit cards.   The online giant is launching a new program, called Amazon Prime Reload, that allows Prime members to earn 2% bonus every time they reload their Amazon gift card balance with cash from their checking account and debit card. The bonus is given in the form of rewards that can be used to make purchases on Amazon.   

Social media may be a popular platform for ad delivery, but that doesn't mean it is a trusted one.   Despite listing social media as the source of the second-highest volume of ad messages they receive — behind only television — consumers ranked social media last among their most trusted channels, according to a study by the Chief Marketing Officer Council. Consumers ranked friends, television, search engines and newspapers as more trusted sources.