Mobile Marketing

Specialty jewelry retailer Pandora found that combining a leading-edge marketing technique with a tried-and-true advertising format paid dividends during the recent holiday season.

From November 2015 – January 2016, Pandora leveraged the mobile network from location-based marketing provider Outfront Mediato drive traffic to four Miami-area stores. Pandora’s omnichannel approach included nine billboards in Miami, as well as a geo-fencing area that consisted of a five-mile radius around nine local out-of-home assets owned by Outfront Media.

Move over Big Lots and Ollie’s Bargain Outlet. Kmart is ready to begin making opportunistic purchases of closeouts and liquidated good in keeping with its strategic vision to make shopping fun again.

Kmart said its strategic merchandising group is actively sourcing extreme-value deals by purchasing the inventory of liquidated companies and capitalizing on other opportunistic situations to obtain outstanding products and offer unbeatable value.

Kohl's is leveraging the popularity of the Oscars to kick-start the retailer's spring marketing campaigns in true omnichannel style.

The retailer announced that for the first time ever, the company will be the exclusive retail sponsor of the Oscars, which air this month.

While rumors of Amazon launching a chain of physical bookstores seem to be exaggerated, there is no question that pure-play retailers are beginning to make inroads into the brick-and-mortar channel. Over the past couple of years, e-tailers as diverse as Warby Parker, Bonobos and Birchbox have not only opened stores, but committed themselves to expanding in the space.

Here are a few good reasons for virtual enterprises to consider selling items in a “real” environment.

Buy Online, Pickup at Your Store

A digital consumer touch-point long thought to offer little in the way of “hard” ROI appears to be changing that trend.

According to a study of aggregated, anonymized U.S. traffic and revenue data from Kibo (the new company created from the merger of MarketLive, Shopatron and Fiverun), there was a 138% increase in total social revenue during 2015 compared to 2014.

If you were an Uber user in Austin, Texas, this fall, you might have been surprised to see the option to take a horse and buggy instead of a car appear on your smartphone.

The tongue-in-cheek offer was part of Uber’s effort to inform and mobilize customers in its fight against what the company contended were antiquated regulations being considered by local government.

Kroger customers are about to find out "how low" gas prices can go with a new contest from the nation's largest supermarket chain.

With Kroger's newest #FuelPointsSweeps giveaway, customers have a chance to win free fuel for a month, not to mention pay as little as 1 cent for a gallon of gas.

Consumer interest in wearables is booming for reasons that retailers should find encouraging.
 
New research from Mintel reveals that the U.S. wearable technology market is experiencing unprecedented growth, with estimated sales increasing 186% from 2014-2015, reaching $7 billion in 2015.
 
And despite just one in 10 consumers owning a fitness tracker (12%) or smartwatch (7%), 16% of consumers said they planned to purchase a fitness tracker or smartwatch in the final three months of 2015.