Social Media

Purchasing all the ingredients needed for a Thanksgiving meal just got easier for San Francisco residents.

Target and Instacart are partnering to provide a food truck featuring Thanksgiving recipes and coupon codes, as well as grocery delivery, in downtown San Francisco.

Visual social media network Instagram is taking a new step toward becoming a platform for commerce.

Instagram has launched a new program called Instagram Partners that is designed to help companies advertise on the social network. Each certified partner must have expertise in at least one of three defined areas: ad tech (buying and selling ads at scale), community management (managing comments and gaining consumer insights), and content marketing (sourcing and delivering content at scale).

Retailers can use apps for more than just driving sales, as demonstrated by Office Depot Inc.’s latest mobile move.

The Office Depot and OfficeMax parent company is re-releasing its Elf Yourself mobile app. The app, which Office Depot has offered every holiday season since 2012 and launched as an online platform in 2006, is a prime example of how retailers are using apps to build positive consumer sentiment and brand awareness.

Two new offerings from Pinterest make the visually-oriented social media platform even more accessible for e-commerce.

Neiman Marcus is taking the capabilities of its digital lookbooks to a whole new level.

Neiman Marcus has deployed the Zmags Creator rich media marketing platform to design and publish shoppable lookbooks on its e-commerce site. The retailer’s more than 150 annual lookbooks serve as the primary way to highlight designer merchandise on its site.

Marketers know that image is crucial to digital sales, but that doesn’t mean they are making a big effort.

According to a new infographic based on a survey of 200 marketers from visual marketing platform provider Curalate, 86% of marketers agree that “type of channel” is important when selecting images to use in marketing initiatives. Yet, 78% still share the same images across all or most channels

The Finish Line Inc. is continuing its efforts to become an omnichannel lifestyle experience with a new social media campaign.

For the second year in a row, Finish Line customers will be able to demonstrate their basketball skills via social media platforms by using the hashtag #theFundamentals on Twitter and Instagram, or submitting them via Snapchat. The digital entries will be judged by a group of NBA athletes.

eBay is targeting consumers across digital and physical channels this holiday season with a new online holiday hub and even in-person selling stations.

Through Jan. 1, 2016, eBay is running a multifaceted holiday campaign called “Wish Bigger.” A central feature is a holiday-specific shopping site, eBay.com/holidays, which will offer features such as a soon-to-launch holiday heat map that will track what eBay customers are wishing and shopping for coast-to-coast on a weekly basis.