Marketing Tactics

Jordan’s Furniture, known for its larger-than-life stores that combine retail with all manner of entertainment, is outdoing itself in its next location. The retailer is building a 192,500-sq.-ft. store in New Haven, Connecticut — its first in the state — that will feature a massive indoor rope course, billed as “IT Adventure Ropes Course,” that includes two 60-ft. high ropes courses. Jordan’s is devoting 20,000 sq. ft. to the attraction.

Although social commerce is still relatively new, it appears to be quickly gaining acceptance with consumers.

According to a new survey of more than 1,500 U.S. consumers from Citi Retail Services, social commerce, or the concept of using social media to drive sales, is evolving and growing at a faster pace than all other online channels. And shoppers are buying in.

Target has an aggressive new plan to lure shoppers this holiday season that includes free shipping on all orders and a new international website.

The plan is part of Target CEO Brian Cornell’s efforts to restructure the company and revamp its digital and in-store offerings. Free shipping starts Nov. 1 and ends Dec. 25.

A new e-commerce integration will empower online retailers to sell goods directly through Instagram.

Springbot, an e-commerce marketing platform designed for online stores, has integrated with Instagram to allow the creation of customized shopping pages through a Magento or Shopify merchant’s Instagram profile. Springbot already provides the tracking of revenue attribution for retailers on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

Amazon.com is famous for launching new services and solutions at a dizzying rate, but the online retail giant is quietly preparing to close one down.

In an announcement posted on the Amazon Local daily deals site, the retailer says it will stop deals on the site and app as of Dec. 18. Amazon Local will continue business as normal until that date. Amazon Local purchase vouchers will remain valid for five years from purchase date as required by law in all 50 states.

Buoyed by the launch of new menu offerings and increases in store traffic, Starbucks Corp. brewed up another strong quarter, with revenue and profits meeting Wall Street expectations. The coffee giant also continues to set a torrid pace for store expansion.

Starbucks intends to open 1,800 new stores globally during fiscal 2016, with licensing driving a large portion of the growth. This includes 700 stores in the Americas (half licensed), 900 in China/Asia-Pacific (two-thirds licensed), and 200 primarily licensed stores in Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA).

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube have some new competition as social commerce tools.

Visual commerce provider Curalate is releasing Curalate Reveal, a new solution enabling consumers to discover and shop products by clicking on images in blogs. Thus retailers can create shopping experiences on their own blogs or blogs of key influencers.

Southeastern Grocers on Thursday announced a significant pricing initiative that addresses exactly what customers need: a $40 million investment into permanent lower prices on the products Winn-Dixie customers buy the most.

Customers stated in a recent survey that “affordable prices” was the most important requirement from a grocery store, so Winn-Dixie is introducing a New Regular Pricing Program that will permanently reduce the prices on more than 1,500 grocery items at all 518 Winn-Dixie stores.