Loyalty Marketing

NEW YORK — Macy's has announced a number of initiatives in support of LGBT pride month this June. 

Macy's "Pride and Joy" campaign will feature a multitude of in-store fashion events, commemorative advertising and window displays, pride merchandise in select stores, gift registry booths for couples in key cities, celebrity appearances, as well as sponsorship and employee participation in pride parades across the country.

Open-air shopping destination Santa Monica (Calif.) Place has launched a new gift card partnership to benefit local public schools. One dollar from the purchase fee for every Santa Monica Place Gift Card and GIVE Green Gift Card sold at the center will go to the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears announced that it has created a list of perfect Father's Day gifts with the help of its mySears community and Facebook fans. The company polled its consumers and yielded more than 700 responses to determine the ultimate "Gift Guy'd," the company reported.

San Francisco -- Luxury sales are expected to continue to increase through June, according to Kurt Salmon's Luxury Spending Trajectory. The proprietary index, which tracks high-income consumers' confidence and intent to spend, has been highly correlated with luxury same-store sales growth over the last five years.

Shares of Target are on sale. After beginning the year slightly above the $60 mark, it has been a steady slide downward for the first five months of this year, and now shares regularly trade below $50.

Target and Walmart remain in what is essentially a dead heat as far as prices on food and consumables are concerned, according to the most recent study of prices in Dallas and Chicago conducted by Credit Suisse. The firm looked at a basket of 60 items across the two markets, as it does every month, and in keeping with prior comparisons, the data for April showed Target lagged Walmart by 3.4% in Chicago and 4.6% in Dallas.

WASHINGTON — Ongoing economic challenges and high gas prices won’t put a dent in shoppers spending intentions this Father’s Day, according to new research from the National Retail Federation.

Eden, Minn. -- Young America, an engagement marketing, loyalty and incentive firm, and 3Seventy, a mobile engagement solutions company, have formed a strategic alliance to jointly develop new mobile marketing capabilities and enhance delivery of mobile-based engagement marketing and loyalty services to their client base.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Winn-Dixie president, chairman and CEO Peter Lynch expressed confidence in the grocer as it heads into its fourth quarter, maintaining that the grocer's estimated adjusted EBITDA will come in at the lower end of the $100 million to $130 million range for fiscal 2011, a 52-week period ending June 29, in light of relatively flat third-quarter results.

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — Kohl’s reported that its first quarter diluted earnings per share increased 14% to 73 cents, in line with Citi and Stifel analysts expectations and with the company's updated guidance that EPS would be toward the high-end of 68 cents to 73 cents (provided on May 5). Net income for the quarter was $211 million, compared with $199 million (64 cents per diluted share) a year ago. Net sales were $4.2 billion, an increase of 3.1% for the quarter. Comparable-store sales for the quarter increased 1.3%.