Marketing Tactics

Smart & Final is launching a new marketing blitz that puts its use of punctuation front and center.

The rollout will include print, radio, television and outdoor advertising in select markets and digital outreach now through July 3. The new campaign aims to tell the story of what the value-oriented food and staples retailer has become through its growth initiatives and will highlight the company's heritage.

Walmart is more than doubling the number of veterans it plans to hire by the year 2020.

Columbus, Ohio - The Limited is launching a new program called Reserve Online, Ready In-Store, that allows customers to shop TheLimited.com and place items on hold for purchase and pick-up at their local store. Reserve Online, Ready In-Store is available at The Limited's nearly 225 full-line retail store locations across the U.S.

This full-scale launch follows a successful pilot in select stores in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio, markets.  

San Jose, Calif. – PayPal may have to fork over $25 million in a proposed settlement for allegedly deceiving consumers with the PayPal Credit service, formerly known as BillMeLater. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants PayPal to refund $15 million to consumers and pay an additional $10 million in fines for signing up consumers who did not want to participate, not honoring promotional offers, unfairly leading PayPal customers to use PayPal Credit, and charging consumers fees during periods of time disputes were improperly handled.

San Francisco - Retailers in the U.S. including Dunkin’ Donuts, Fandango, Sundance Catalog and Williams-Sonoma will now offer Visa Checkout, the online checkout service from Visa Inc. In addition, Pizza Hut, Ticketek and Bonds will offer Visa Checkout in Australia; and Indigo, Roots, Running Room and Simons will offer the service in Canada.

Durham, N.C. – Consumers are increasingly taking an omnichannel approach to their online shopping carts. According to the research presented in Bronto Software and Deamdware’s recent “Consumers Tell All” study, 40% of online shoppers leave items in a shopping cart to view later, on a different device, or in a brick-and-mortar shop.

New York - Digital ad spending in the U.S. will total $58.61 billion this year, and retailers' ad outlays will comprise 22% of that figure, or $12.91 billion, by far outpacing all other U.S. industries. According to new figures from eMarketer.

Retailers will spend nearly twice as much as any other industry on mobile advertising in 2015, and the sector's $6.65 billion will represent 23.2% of the $28.72 billion that advertisers in the U.S. will spend to reach consumers on mobile devices this year.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. - Kohl’s Corp. is preparing to open a store in southern New Jersey called "Off Aisle by Kohl's," a name that suggests the company may be following the lead of other retailers opening off-price formats.

Merrillville, Ind. – Buying club DirectBuy is launching its My Rewards loyalty program. The program allows DirectBuy members to earn My Rewards points by purchasing products from select brands who otherwise would not be able to offer merchandise through DirectBuy because of their minimum resale pricing (MRP) policies.

By Jeff Collins