In-Store Media

Shoes of Prey is partnering with Nordstrom to house their design-your-own-shoes studio concept in six major locations across the country. The first Shoes of Prey Design Studio at Nordstrom will open today in Bellevue, Wash. Other studios will open in 2015.

Build-A-Bear Workshop has transformed its stores into Santa's Workshops to provide toys for all the children on the "nice list," with the help of Santa's reindeer team. The company said it is introducing eight lovable reindeer and extending play beyond plush with the launch of an exclusive holiday app: Santa's Merry Mission. Guests are encouraged to visit buildabear.com/teamsanta to download the app and learn about each of Santa's merry reindeer.

Columbus, Ohio -- Big Lots has launched a marketing program around spurring holiday home décor purchases by declaring Nov.16-22, 2014, as the nation's first Decorate Your Home for the Holidays Week.  

Perhaps the most aggressive traffic and sales generating promotional effort this Black Friday comes courtesy of Old Navy.

The Old Navy division of Gap, Inc., plans to open its more than 800 stores at 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving day and will price all merchandise at half off for 31 hours until stores close at 11 p.m. on Black Friday. And, if the 50% markdown isn’t sufficient to motivate shoppers, the retailer plans generate store traffic by giving away $1 million to one lucky customer and 1,000 $200 gift certificates.

Dollar General is leveraging the expansive reach of its more than 11,500 stores this holiday season to benefit several organizations aligned with the retailer’s mission of serving others.

The retailer is partnering with St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital’s Thanks and Giving campaign and the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Foundation’s “You’re the Hero” toy drive, as well as other local toy drives, to offer customers an opportunity to give back this holiday season.
 

RadioShack continues to roll out its new “Fix It Here!” service as it looks to become more relevant with shoppers.

The company announced the new mobile device repair service is now available in at least 30 stores in the Houston area. The move is part of an ongoing national rollout expected to have the service in 750 locations by year end. The service is currently offered at 650 stores.

RadioShack is looking to increase sales during the crucial holiday shopping season, and the new service is seen as a way to generate store traffic and sales.

Ridgefield, N.J. –- Samsung is taking direct aim at the burgeoning market for Apple’s iBeacon in-store marketing/messaging solution with its own new beacon-based tool called Proximity. Like iBeacon, Proximity uses Bluetooth Low Energy beacons to identify and track the location of shoppers in a store by their mobile devices and send them offers and promotions based both on their purchase history and location in the store.  

Kansas City -- Eddie Bauer has opened an Eddie Bauer Outlet story at Kansas City’s signature designer outlet shopping center, Legends Outlet Kansas City. The new store opened on Nov. 13.   The only area Eddie Bauer Outlet opened between J. Crew | crewcuts and OshKosh B’Gosh at 1813 Village West Parkway, occupying 3,964 sq. ft.  

Sears is offering early access to Black Friday deals as a means to entice customers to join its free Shop Your Way membership-based loyalty program.

The retailer said its Shop Your Way members can begin Black Friday a week early at Sears.com when exclusive pricing on key items becomes available at 6 p.m. on Nov. 20. Then on Thanksgiving Day, Sears stores will open at 6 p.m. with more than 1,000 doorbuster deals continuing through 1 p.m. on Black Friday.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Following the lead of some other retailers, Walmart is spreading out Black Friday beyond the day after Thanksgiving.