Marketing Tactics

Office Depot is gearing up for a successful back to school season with a new lineup of essentials for students of all ages.

Kohl’s is launching an innovative program to attract shoppers to its back to school sales.

The retailer plans to feature children’s books from author Laura Numeroff now through September at Kohl’s stores nationwide and on Kohls.com. Each item is priced at just $5, with 100% of the net profit supporting children’s health and education initiatives nationwide. 

Ottawa, Canada – Home Depot is narrowing its price gap with Amazon.com, which typically offers the lowest overall prices on home improvement goods.

 According to a recent study from pricing analytics provider 360pi, “Building Up to Home Improvement Season,” Home Depot was the most aggressively priced home improvement “category killer,” with an average price of just more than 5% above Amazon, narrowing down to around 3% above Amazon by the end of the sampled period (May 1 – June 16, 2015).

A harried mother in the baking aisle can’t find lemongrass spice. A teenager in the junior department can’t decide which T-shirt to buy. A family in sporting goods is disappointed that the tent for their camping trip appears to be out of stock.

Seattle – July is often a slow-paced month for consumers, but Amazon.com is seeking to change that. In an effort to promote its Amazon Prime paid loyalty program, the retailer is encouraging customers to celebrate “Prime Day,” a one-day global shopping event on July 15 that is says will have more deals than Black Friday.

Fort Worth, Texas – RadioShack, which came to the brink of disappearing earlier this year, will see its brand continue to live on thanks to new financing.

General Wireless Operations Inc., doing business as RadioShack, has completed new financing totaling $75 million, consisting of a $50 million asset based lending credit facility led by RBC Capital Markets and a $25 million first-in last-out term loan led by Great American Capital Partners.

Dallas – A retailer’s social media activity has a greater impact on shoppers than the company’s website.

That’s one of the findings of the Digital Shopping Tool Impact Study 2015 from marketing technology provider Epsilon. The platform shoppers cite as most influential to their shopping decisions is Facebook, although Pinterest and Google+ are strong contenders.  

Indianapolis - Lids Sports Group will continue living out the childhood dreams of countless consumers by “playing ball” with Major League Baseball players. Lids has reached a licensing agreement extension with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) granting the sportswear retailer licensing rights to embroider the names, numbers and autographs of MLBPA players on New Era MLB-licensed caps.

Just as the agora in Ancient Greece was the central meeting place where the community could come together to purchase goods from the market, connect with their friends and learn about the latest news, so too are today’s modern shopping centers a place that connects local residents. Today, by leveraging their structure and location, shopping centers can go one step further to affect positive change in their local communities and the nation at large by back to make local residents’ lives better.

Amazon.com’s latest gambit to encourage shoppers to buy a $99 Prime membership and goose second quarter sales involves the creation of quasi-holiday called “Prime Day.”