Loyalty Marketing

Boston – Rue La La is adding some celebrity appeal to its omnichannel partnership promoting cotton. Actress, model and author Molly Sims is the new face of its "Cotton. It's Your Favorite for a Reason" campaign with promotional group Cotton Inc.  

Dallas – The Elephant Bar casual dining chain is herding loyalty members as they approach local stores.

The 29-unit retailer has deployed the Paytronix Geofencing solution to send messages designed to compel visits from members of its rewards program when they are within a set proximity to a restaurant.
In a review of three recent campaigns, Elephant Bar determined that approximately 30% of members visited a restaurant on the day that they received a geofencing message.

Bentonville, Ark. – It’s no secret that a big part of Wal-Mart’s strategy is to maintain its market share in the face of competition from Amazon.com, and maybe even steal some away.

But Wal-Mart is now taking the fight for customers directly to Amazon in a big way with a new pricing and shipping promotion that directly challenges the upcoming July 15 Amazon “Prime Day” event.

Amazon.com and Walmart aren’t the only retailers lowering prices this month. Food Lion has jumped on bandwagon at its 1,100 stores with a three-pronged price reduction effort.

Food Lion has announced significant investments in prices throughout its stores by lowering prices on thousands of items that are most important to customers, according to the company, tapping into its longstanding heritage of low prices and convenient locations.

New York -- Every retailer needs a good CFO and that’s especially true at Conn’s where the company’s business model requires balancing the need to grow sales against the charge off risk associated with extending credit to subprime customers.

Conn’s, the 90-store retailer of furniture, bedding, appliances and consumer electronics, named Thomas Moran CFO on July 9. He replaces Mark Haley, Conn’s chief accounting officer, who had filled the position on an interim basis since last December.

Burlington, Ontario -- Ikea Canada announced the national rollout of electric vehicle charging stations at each of its 12 stores across Canada.  

The rollout, set to be completed by late August of this year, is the first national installation of EV charging stations in Canada by a retailer at all of its locations.

The Home Depot has come one step closer to eliminating youth homelessness in Canada after sponsoring an inventive in-store campaign.

By purchasing a paper door for $2, Home Depot customers in Canada raised $1,253,370 toward the goal of ending youth homelessness in that nation. Donations will go to support housing and life-skills development programs such as counselling, financial literacy, and employment preparation to give youth the practical tools they need to live to their full potential.

Staples is injecting a little bit of boy band starpower into its latest promotion aimed on supporting education.

The retailer is building on its decades-long support of teachers, students and education with a $10 million pledge to support Think It Up, a program launched by the Entertainment Industry Foundation. Think IT Up is a new movement created to inspire students to pursue their passions through student-powered, teacher-led learning projects with support from Staples for Students.

At Home is accelerating its pace in its race to operate 100 stores by opening its first store in the state of Louisiana.

The retailer is opening a 90,000 square foot store in Kenner, La., on July 9.

Following the store opening, the Kenner location will have a grand opening ribbon-cutting July 14 at 9 a.m. with the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce and onsite giveaways for customers and a radio remote on July 18.

Athens, Ga. -- Say hello to Snagshout, a new website that offers shoppers a discount in exchange for a review.

The site, which launched on Wednesday, offers deep discounts on a wide range of retail products for purchase, use and review. It connects shoppers looking for deals with merchants looking to gain traction with new items on Amazon.