Loyalty Marketing

Regional department store retailer Belk Inc. is using social media to make the holidays a little more fun and rewarding for its shoppers.

North Carolina-based Belk, which operates about 300 stores, has teamed up with digital marketing solutions provider HelloWorld for the return of the Santa Baby sweepstakes, now in its second year. In an effort to increase mobile opt-ins and ultimately boost brand awareness and consumer engagement, Belk and HelloWorld are allowing customers to create personalized e-cards, gifs, and TV spots.

Gordmans Stores is taking a POS-centric approach to improving the store experience.

Nebraska-based Gordmans, a discount department store chain with 101 locations, has engaged with retail solutions provider OLR to implement Oracle Retail Xstore Point of Sale (POS) and Oracle Retail Customer Engagement.

Babies"R"Us is looking to get parents thinking about holiday gifts early with in-store and innovative digital promotions appealing to “Baby’s First Christmas.”

Skechers has surpassed its fundraising goal for special needs kids with an ever-popular event that appeals to its target market.

Kohl’s is in growth mode when it comes to the retailer’s store base.

Next year, Kohl’s plans to open five to 10 new stores in a smaller 35,000-sq.-ft. prototype, aimed at underserved areas. Kohl’s also plans to open 10 to 15 stores dedicated to its proprietary Fila brand in outlet malls across the country. Additionally, the retailer will open two more Off-Aisle by Kohl’s off-price locations in 2016.

Instacart will be opening a temporary online Halloween pop-up shop.

Customers in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco will be able to receive same-day delivery of costumes until supplies last. Instacart successfully piloted the Halloween shop in Seattle in 2014.

Instacart will charge its normal delivery prices for the special program: $3.99 for a two-hour delivery, and $5.99 for a one hour delivery when customers spend $35 or more. First-time Instacart users can have their costume delivered for free, as can Instacart express members.

Retail marketers looking to obtain personal consumer information need to prepare for a little horse trading.

According to new research from online deals platform RetailMeNot and Kelton Global, 89% of shoppers are willing to provide retail marketers with personal information in exchange for more targeted content.

Walmart is launching a new initiative with InComm and Pursuant Health that allows health plans to promote health risk assessments at kiosks in Walmart stores.

InComm, a leading prepaid product and transaction services company, and Pursuant Health (formerly SoloHealth) announced the partnership at the 2015 Money 2020 Conference in Las Vegas.

Companies that are partially or entirely devoted to retailing dominate a new list of top brands among U.S. consumers.

According to a new study from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Apple is the top brand with U.S. consumers. Following are Amazon and Walmart. Other retailers in the top 10 list include Netflix, Costco and Chick-Fil-A.

But the survey also showed that Walmart and Apple rank first and third among America's least favorite brands, indicating that "brand love" can be volatile and turn quickly negative.