Loyalty Marketing

Washington, D.C. - Consumers will take a conservative approach to spending this holiday season. According to NRF’s holiday consumer spending survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, the average holiday shopper will spend $737.95 on gifts, décor, greeting cards and more, 2% less than the $752.24 they actually spent last year.  Despite this reduction in individual holiday budgets, NRF is forecasting holiday sales will increase 3.9% to $602.1 billion.

Mars Chocolate North America has introduced a new set of planning tools to help retailers develop their marketing strategies and build chocolate sales.

The new resources include the 2014 Moments Calendar Video, year-long display programs, a convenience channel 2014 Planning Toolkit, a revamped Mars24seven.com and the Performance Plus Rewards Program.

99 Cents Only Stores is driving some Halloween traffic to its stores by taking its marketing campaign to the zoo. From 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Oct. 19-Oct. 20 and again on Oct. 26-Oct. 27, the retailer will be on hand at the Los Angeles Zoo's 24th Annual Boo at the Zoo event.

Store employees will be handing out goodies to children at trick-or-treating stations throughout the zoo. 99 enthusiast Papa Joe Aviance will be at the 99 Cents Only Stores booth reading spooky stories to the kids.

Kmart is kicking off the holiday shopping season with the launch of a new lease-to-own program in time for Black Friday.

Kmart said it would launch the program through Whynot Leasing and make it available nationwide starting on Nov. 22. Sears, also part of parent company Sears Holdings, also is launching the program, making it available for more than 95 million items via Sears Marketplace, including electronics, home goods, jewelry and tools, as well as major brands and boutique items.

New York — More than half (54%) of shoppers who used a coupon during purchase would not have made the purchase without the deal; in addition, 55% of these shoppers were inspired to shop because they received a coupon. Those are some of takeaways from a recent survey by Tada.com, which offers deals and coupons from more than 5,000 retailers.

Macy’s plans to get a jump on Black Friday and break tradition by opening the doors to most of its locations nationwide at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving evening, making it the first time in its history that the retailer will be open for business on the holiday.

Limited-time specials in every department for hundreds of items include exclusive fragrances, name-brand apparel and kitchen gadgets. Macy's will also donate $2 to Make-a-Wish, up to $100,000, for any One Direction "Our Moment" fragrance purchase beginning at opening for Black Friday.

New York – Duane Reade is running a three week, omnichannel social media marketing campaign to raise awareness of Duane Reade brand hosiery products. The "Boo-tiful Legs" Halloween contest calls for entrants to upload their original photos wearing Duane Reade brand hosiery with their Halloween costume, via a Duane Reade Facebook page FanGate, through Nov. 3.

Amazon.com has unveiled its 2013 holiday toy list which features, for the first time, top toy picks voted on by Amazon Mom fans and an enhanced Holiday Gift Finder that allows shoppers to filter by age, gender, interests, brands and price points.