Social Media

By Gary Lee, InReality   As 2014 comes to a close, one thing is clear—traditional retailing is under fire.    Consumers, not brands or retailers, now hold the reigns of power. And, to survive, marketers in brick-and-mortar must take a fresh approach to physical retailing, and carve out a unique value proposition for the in-store experience, one worthy of the consumer’s precious time.  

Piccing, a “social-shopping” platform, has raised $3.62 million from undisclosed investors, the company announced.

The company’s web and iOS app lets users upload or bookmark images — the latter, Pinterest-style — wherein they can add up to five hotspots tied to items found in each image, thereby helping to make those images “shoppable.”

Users browsing or searching via the platform can click on any image’s hotspots — dubbed “piccs” — to buy the product or see similar items.

New York - Edeka, Germany's largest supermarket company, decided to surprise its customers with some unexpected seasonal cheer. Thirteen hidden cameras caught shoppers’ expressions as the store lights went down and cashiers scanned items in such a way that their registers beeped the right notes of holiday favorite "Jingle Bells.” 

TGI Fridays has been getting a lot of attention for its holiday “Mobile Mistletoe” promotion, and not all of it has been for the right reasons. While Mobile Mistletoe is a great concept in omnichannel marketing and customer engagement, some flaws in the actual execution suggest TGI Fridays should have spent more time refining it before launch.  

Buying and selling on Etsy.com is going to get a lot more social thanks to a new partnership between the Internet retailer and a social commerce platform called Shoppost.

Shoppost, owned by Zantler, is now officially available to Etsy users and gives sellers the ability to sell their products in-stream on such top social networks as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr.

Atlanta – Pizza chain Mellow Mushroom is partnering with beer brand Stella Artois to provide rewards to consumers who post photos on Twitter and Instagram, with a little help from their friends. By posting “usies” (“selfies” with a friend) using the hashtag #MellowStellaContest, Mellow Mushroom followers are entered in a contest featuring a getaway and other prizes.  

Oklahoma City - Party Galaxy might be ready to start its holiday celebration a little early. The omnichannel specialty retailer recently saw a 1,520% increase in its social media-generated website traffic in just 30 days, driven by SocialCentiv, a patented Twitter marketing tool.   

In the final installment of CSA Online’s PizzaRev series, we’ll explore the importance of choosing franchisees with a particularly discerning eye, and the process by which franchisors evaluate potential expansion markets.    FRANCHISEE FACTORS   

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Polaroid Fotobar is opening two of its smaller-format “micro-store”  locations in the San Jose, California, area, with the first opening on Wednesday, at Westfield Oakridge. The second location, at Westfield Valley Fair, will open in mid-December.  

Michaels is partnering with a new ad agency on a $180 million marketing plan as the arts and crafts retailer looks to weave a quilt of higher sales and market share.

Zimmerman Advertising will perform a range of key functions for Michaels, working with a total marketing budget of $180 million and focusing on strategic planning, analytics, digital media planning and buying and social media.