Loyalty Marketing

Amazon.com has announced that this holiday season, thousands of third-party sellers will have the opportunity to participate in its holiday deals promotion program.

Third-party sellers on Amazon will be allowed to offer holiday deals that will be featured on the Amazon holiday deal pages, including its Today’s Deals page. Holiday deals from sellers will appear on high customer traffic merchandising pages which highlight limited-time discounts on holiday items exclusively from sellers.

New York -- With a late Thanksgiving and the shortest holiday shopping season in years, consumers report they are starting their holiday shopping sooner and spending more this year, according to the latest American Express Spending & Saving Tracker research. The report is more optimistic than some other holiday forecasts.

Stuart Weitzman plans to open up a pop-up shop in the digital space. The upscale footwear brand has partnered with the online shopping destination, Gilt, to launch the store, created exclusively by Gilt.

The online pop-up will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Stuart Weitzman’s iconic, over-the-knee 5050 boot and feature a 20-piece Anniversary Collection, which includes ten limited-edition styles.

Phoenix – PetSmart Inc. has issued guidance for fiscal year 2013 for total sales growth of 3%-4%, as well as same-store sales growth of 3%-4%, compared to the prior fiscal year. PetSmart also slightly downgraded previous same-store sales guidance for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 to 2.2%-2.5%, from previously issued guidance of 3%-4%.

Washington, D.C. – Many online retailers are starting or have started their holiday preparations early this year. According to Shop.org’s eHoliday survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, 74% of online retailers had started preparing for the 2013 holiday season by July of this year, and 51% plan to start their holiday promotions by Halloween.

Specialty home décor and gifts retailer Kirkland’s is looking to foment customer loyalty with the launch of a K Club Rewards loyalty program on Oct. 20, which will offer consumers exclusive discount opportunities and points on eligible purchases.

“We are excited to offer our customers a new way to earn rewards when they shop at Kirkland’s,” said Mark Krebs, Kirkland’s VP of marketing. “Our goal was to make this program customer-centric, simple and fun, and we have been pleased to hear positive feedback so far.”

Family is all about loyalty, and as a family-owned business, 301-store, Charlotte, N.C.-based Belk, Inc. makes an effort to maintain and reward loyalty from its customers. So when Belk reached its 125th anniversary this year, the retailer decided to launch a campaign that would reward loyal shoppers while also boosting its presence in channels such as mobile and social.

Prized customer engagement

RadioShack has extended its long-term agreement with Citi Retail Services. Under the agreement, Citi will continue to provide service-enhancing solutions and analytics in support of RadioShack’s targets for growth.