Loyalty Marketing

Austin, Texas - Nearly all Americans (96%) are coupon users, according to the latest edition of the Shoppers Trend Report conducted in conjunction with The Omnibus Company. The number of Americans who rely mostly on mobile coupons has been steadily increasing during the past few years (15% in 2014, compared to 10% in 2013 vs. 4% in 2010).

Saks Fifth Avenue is launching a new user-generated content hub on its e-commerce site. Called #SaksStyle and based on the Curalate Fanreel image integration platform, #SaksStyle allows customers to display photos from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr in a social shopping environment.

Here are three reasons to like (and very possibly emulate) what Saks is doing with its latest social venture.

Ottawa, Canada - The retailers who “won” during the holiday season in 2013 were those that offered meaningful discounts on a sizable number of products on Black Friday instead of discounting a small number of door crashers. According to analysis from 360pi and Retail Systems Research, poor financial performance followed those retailers who discounted during the week leading into Black Friday, and those who kept discounts in place following Cyber Monday generally fared better than those who raised prices.

Whole Foods is aiming to make life for customers in 15 cities a little more convenient. The company has entered into a partnership with grocery delivery service Instacart that enables customers to have Whole Foods Market products delivered to them in one hour.

Customers will soon also be able to place orders via Instacart and pick them up local participating Whole Foods Market stores, making Whole Foods the first national Instacart partner to offer the in-store pickup service.

Austin, Texas - Whole Foods Market and one-hour grocery delivery service Instacart are launching a new partnership that enables customers to have Whole Foods Market products delivered in as little as one hour. Customers will soon also have the option to place orders via Instacart and pick up their order at a local Whole Foods Market store.

Phoenix – Sprouts Farmers Market has teamed up with Nashville, Tenn.-based integrated ad agency Redpepper to use omnichannel marketing to produce market awareness and traffic for four new stores in the suburban Atlanta area. In addition to traditional outdoor, print, radio and newspaper ads, Sprouts used Facebook- and email-based marketing techniques.

Instagram has become a mainstream social media tool for retailers. However, while most retailers limit their Instagram usage to maintaining an official page or encouraging customers to post photos with Instagram hashtags as part of promotional campaigns, some retailers are more forward-thinking in their Instagram approach.

Here are three retailers showing real insight in how they are leveraging Instagram to its fullest potential:

Hoffman Estates, Ill. - Kmart is offering a no-money-down layaway program to members of the Shop Your Way loyalty program for the holiday season, starting Sept. 4. Kmart's layaway program includes both online and in-store contracts for coveted items across dozens of merchandise categories, including apparel, home, toys and electronics.

Kmart is also running a new ad for the program both on TV and YouTube.