Loyalty Marketing

Etsy and the West Elm division of Williams-Sonoma continue to fuel the maker movement with new initiatives that were launched to coincide with a Presidential Proclamation establishing the National Week of Making.

In conjunction with an event at the White House and a proclamation by President Barack Obama, online retailer Etsy said it planned to expand its Craft Entrepreneurship program to 30 cities by July 2016 from the current 19 cities.

Irving, Texas – The Michaels Companies Inc. is teaming up with The Gymboree Corp, on a summer Instagram promotion. Customers who share on Instagram how their family is crafting in style using the hashtag #CraftingInStyleSweeps and follow both Michales and Gymboree on Instagram will be entered to win a $100 gift card to both retailers.

Three winners will be chosen at random each week.

New York — If credit card issuers stopped offering rewards, a slight majority of American credit cardholders wouldn’t change their spending habits. According to a new Bankrate.com survey, 51% of U.S. credit card holders say they would keep using the card the same way they did previously.    Another 26% would use the card less often and 19% would stop using it entirely.  

By Joe Dalton    As technologies advance, social channels proliferate, and consumers become more plugged into digital marketing, personalization and contextualization is becoming the key to connecting with customers. While consumers build their online identities simply by using their devices for everything from browsing to averting traffic, they leave trails of their preferences, behavior, and values that retailers can draw upon to appeal to the interests of each individual customer.   

San Francisco -- Volta Industries is launching a network of more than 100 free electric car charging stations across five cities. Participating retailers include Macy’s and Whole Foods.

Volta first began in Honolulu by offering free electric car charging services underwritten by local brands. Since then, Volta has deployed initial charging infrastructure in high-volume, retail locations in five major cities, including the San Francisco Bay area, the Los Angeles metropolitan area, San Diego, Phoenix, and Honolulu.

Food Lion is celebrating the anniversary of its hunger relief program by donating more than 1 million meals.

In year 1 of the Food Lion Feeds program, the grocer donated more than 62 million meals and is on target to meet its commitment to donate 500 million meals throughout its 10-state operating area by the end of 2020.

Plus-size apparel retailer Torrid is launching a national quest to discover the new full-figured face for the brand.

Casting for the Face of Torrid 2016 kicked off this month at Torrid.com/modelsearch and will be followed this summer with live casting events in five major Torrid markets: Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

New York -- Twitter announced on Wednesday that its advertisers can use the data the social giant has been collecting on which apps its users download for targeted ads.