Marketing Tactics

While results were conservative, holiday digital sales surpassed 2015 figures.  

Making an even bigger push into private-label foods, Amazon launched a new line of natural snacks.   Already a player in non-food private label categories, including household goods and other items under the Amazon Basics and Amazon Elements brands, Amazon’s newest line, Wickedly Prime, is making a push into grocery — specifically among “foodies.” The line currently features popcorn, blue corn and sweet potato tortilla chips, and soft shell almonds.  

Spin, an entertainment concept that had its genesis in “Naked Ping Pong” parties in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood, has taken the ground floor space to close out leasing at a new retail venue in Philadelphia.   The glass-fronted, 55,000-sq.-ft. center in Rittenhouse Square, owned by an affiliate of Midwood Investment & Development, is co-anchored by The Cheesecake Factory and Verizon. Also inhabiting the three-story building is &Pizza and WeWork, a collaborative work space.  

Initial reports about holiday spending bode well for retailers.   Consumers spent 16% more on holiday purchases this year than in 2015, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers Post-Holiday Shopping Survey.  

While most retailers reduced traditional advertising spend in favor of digital sources this holiday season, Amazon made an unprecedented move to television.   This was according to the “MediaRadar Trend Report” that examined holiday advertising spend among Amazon, Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Sears, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, and J.C. Penney, between October and November 2016.    When comparing holiday ad spend by retailer, here is how the companies fared:  

Big Lots is looking to attract shoppers with more than deep discounts.   The retailer is working with Big Red Rooster, Columbus, Ohio, and Alloy, Westerville, Ohio, to develop a store of the future, according to a report in The Columbus Dispatch.  

Noted retail real estate expert Faith Hope Consolo has high hopes for 2017, predicting that bigger-spending millennials and recession-proof retailers will keep sales humming on high streets and in malls, if not in department stores.   “Millennials are going to start shopping differently this coming year,” Consolo told Chain Store Age. “It used to be they’d spend up to 75% of their disposable income on food, but that was a fad. This year, they will start spending more on fitness and fashion.”  

Convenience store operator QuickChek has stepped up its mobile efforts with a geo-marketing program that keeps the brand engaged with on-the-go mobile shoppers.    While QuickCheck’s customers were increasingly becoming mobile-influenced, the 140-plus store chain lacked a dedicated digital marketing team — making it impossible to connect with its shoppers.   

While most retailers have already bid adieu to the 2016 holiday shopping season, Amazon has one more trick up its sleeve.  

Holiday procrastinators may have saved retailers this year.       A jump in consumer spending in the final home stretch helped to offset a slow start to the U.S. holiday shopping season, and is likely to help many retailers beat sales forecasts, Reuters reported.