Mobile Marketing

Dan Berthiaume, senior editor of Chain Store Age, recently participated in a one-hour panel discussion, “Game-Changers 2016 Predictions – Part 1,” sponsored by SAP as part of its “Coffee Break with Game-Changers” Internet radio series.

Walmart has kicked off one of its most omnichannel marketing campaigns ever with its Holiday Sing to Salute Military Families.

The nationwide campaign encourages the public to sing a portion of a classic holiday song while capturing it on video, and then post the video on social media channels to show support for members of the military and their families.

7-Eleven is teaming up with a San Francisco start-up to launch an on-demand delivery service at select colleges.

The convenience store giant has partnered with Tapingo, a mobile commerce application for college campuses, to launch on-demand delivery of 7-Eleven products in the college market.

The number of retail chief marketing officers (CMOs) using mobile in their holiday marketing keeps growing.

According to the new BDO Retail Compass Survey of CMOs, 65% of 100 retail CMOs surveyed will tap into mobile, up from 49% in 2014 and the third straight year of growth. And of those using mobile, 34% will focus most heavily on delivering mobile coupons. Respondents plan to focus 12% of their marketing efforts on mobile technology.

Huge numbers of shoppers feasted on deals over Thanksgiving weekend, but how and when Americans did so has forever changed, as online activity exceeded store visits.

Online spending this holiday season is shaping up to be downright joyful for retailers.

According to comScore, total online retail spending for the November–December period will reach $70.1 billion, representing a 14% gain from $61.3 billion a year earlier. Total desktop spending is expected to reach $58.3 billion, up 9% from $53.3 million.

The holidays are becoming an increasingly social event, as evidenced by the promotional campaigns of two major department store chains this season.

According to Adweek, both Target and Macy’s are heavily leveraging a variety of social media platforms to engage consumers for the 2015 holiday season. Target has increased the percentage of its overall paid media spend represented by social to 12%, up 30% from about 9% in 2014.

Specialty apparel retailer New York & Company is targeting social media-savvy young women with a new promotional campaign that brings jeans into the digital realm.

New York & Company is promoting its new line of Soho jeans with a rich media campaign featuring American Idol alum Jennifer Hudson. Through the trends section of its main e-commerce site (avoiding any content silos), New York & Company displays images of Hudson that can bring the customer directly to a product page for purchase.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may still be cool, after all.

A new study on the holiday shopping habits of almost 7,000 millennials by product discovery platform Influenster shows that 93% of respondents plan on shopping Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday this year.

More than half of all shoppers are planning to make holiday purchases over the Thanksgiving holiday period, according to a new report.

The 2015 International Council of Shopping Centers Black Friday Shopping Study shows that 59% of shoppers plan to make a purchase at a physical store over the weekend (Thursday-Sunday).

Surprisingly, Cyber Monday is shaping up to be the second-most popular day for in-store shopping – even though it’s a day normally associated with online activity. Overall, Americans plan to shop in-store on: