Marketing Tactics

Guest appearances by Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson at Books-A-Million stores gave the retailer a modest sales lift in the third quarter.

The company said its sales increased 0.4% to $101.6 million and same store sales increased 1.6%, thanks in part to appearances by Republication presidential contender Dr. Ben Carson. However, signs of life on the top line did not translate to bottom line improvement as Books-A-Million reported a loss of $7.1 million, or 50 cents a share, that was in line with a loss from the prior year.

A new day, every day. That’s what an unusual new retail concept in Manhattan promises shoppers.

It’s called The New Stand, and it’s located underground in the Union Square subway station, near the entrance to the L train. A second location is set to open, this one above ground, at Brookfield Place, a shopping center in lower Manhattan.

Click and collect, or customers ordering goods online for retailers to assemble for in-store pickup, is a practice retailers should consider this holiday season.

According to a new survey from order management solutions provider Shopatron, 31% of U.S. shoppers plan on using click-and-collect this year for holiday shopping.

Alibaba generated a record $14.3 billion in sales in a 24-hour period on Singles Day (Nov. 11) this year. That is roughly five times what Cyber Monday is expected to generate.

Clearly, Alibaba is doing something right and is setting a precedent for what other retailers worldwide hope to achieve. It’s worth looking at why Alibaba was so successful. So what can retailers take away from the Singles’ Day experience to maximize sales and give customers a great experience this holiday season, and throughout 2016?

The holidays are becoming an increasingly social event, as evidenced by the promotional campaigns of two major department store chains this season.

According to Adweek, both Target and Macy’s are heavily leveraging a variety of social media platforms to engage consumers for the 2015 holiday season. Target has increased the percentage of its overall paid media spend represented by social to 12%, up 30% from about 9% in 2014.

In addition to the requisite comment about expecting the holidays to be highly promotional, Famous Footwear also expects the momentum it saw during back-to-school season to carry over to the fourth quarter.

Famous Footwear’s third quarter same store sales increased 4.4% and total sales increased 4.8% to $456 million, excluding the performance of the divested Shoes.com business, to represent 63% of parent company Caleres total sales of $728.6 million. Caleres is the company formerly known as Brown Shoe Company that changed its name earlier this year.

Online spending this holiday season is shaping up to be downright joyful for retailers.

According to comScore, total online retail spending for the November–December period will reach $70.1 billion, representing a 14% gain from $61.3 billion a year earlier. Total desktop spending is expected to reach $58.3 billion, up 9% from $53.3 million.

Online retailer Jet.com has secured an additional $350 million in funding and joined the ranks of startup unicorns whose valuation exceeds $1 billion.