Marketing Tactics

Publicis Groupe, a global leader in marketing and business transformation services, and Wal-Mart Stores, announced Tuesday the launch of a new strategic relationship that will gi

Walmart has not been sitting idly by while Amazon racks up sales and attention for its Prime Day event.   The discount titan launched its own online sales promotion July 1. Offerings include a free 30-day trial of its ShippingPass program, which offers consumers unlimited, two-day free shipping for a year, special online rollback prices which will last 90 days or more, and free shipping with no minimum purchase on its e-commerce site from Monday, July 11 – Friday, July 15.  

The Pokemon Go app has exploded in popularity since its July 5 release in the U.S. 

The dust is clearing from the aftermath of the second annual Amazon Prime Day, and the industry can now see how well the online sales extravaganza actually performed.  

Newegg.com is expanding its physical footprint, this time in Canada.   The online electronics retailer opens its Hybrid Centre in Richmond Hill, Ontario on Friday, July 15. The facility serves a dual purpose of allowing customers to pick up their will-call orders, as well as browse tech products or attend an educational seminar. Some of the products on display are available exclusively through Newegg, many of which are making their North American debut at the Hybrid Centre.  

After two years of benefitting from gasoline price tailwinds, still-stressed consumers will generate only a sluggish 3.3% year-over-year increase in this year’s back-to-school sales, according to Customer Growth Partners’ 14th Annual BTS Forecast.    Total BTS sales for the season will reach $540 billion — a new record, but the lackluster 3.3% growth represents a marked slowdown from the 4%-plus BTS growth seen in both 2014 and 2015, when sales were boosted by declining gasoline prices.  

7-Eleven has set itself new energy conservation goals.       The world’s largest convenience store chain, in collaboration with Conservation International, has committed to reducing its energy footprint in stores by 20% by 2025, and also reducing its packaging footprint by 20% by 2025.    

Online checkout problems are indicative of heavy e-commerce traffic, but still were not what Amazon.com hoped to see in the first hours of Prime Day.   According to multiple media reports, a glitch was causing problems for some U.S. and U.K. consumers attempting to check out their Amazon purchases the morning of Tuesday, July 12. Numerous shoppers tweeted their frustrations using hashtags such as #PrimeDay and #PrimeDayFail. A sampling of tweet complaints includes: