Marketing Tactics

Consumers are doing even more holiday shopping from their desktop computers this year, according to a new report from comScore.

The Internet analytics company reports that U.S. consumer spending from desktop computers for the first 44 days of the November-December 2014 holiday shopping season is up 15% from last year, to $42.5 billion.

New York - Edeka, Germany's largest supermarket company, decided to surprise its customers with some unexpected seasonal cheer. Thirteen hidden cameras caught shoppers’ expressions as the store lights went down and cashiers scanned items in such a way that their registers beeped the right notes of holiday favorite "Jingle Bells.” 

Ridgefield, Conn. - Moviegoers are still enjoying the big-screen entertainment at the AMC Theaters in Levittown, New York, even as Schimenti Construction is renovating the ten-theater complex.  The company’s first project with AMC, it will be completed in January 2015, in just 95 calendar days from start to finish.  

TGI Fridays has been getting a lot of attention for its holiday “Mobile Mistletoe” promotion, and not all of it has been for the right reasons. While Mobile Mistletoe is a great concept in omnichannel marketing and customer engagement, some flaws in the actual execution suggest TGI Fridays should have spent more time refining it before launch.  

London, U.K. – Phone calls may seem obsolete in this text- and online-based age, but U.S. consumers are still making the call when they purchase items. According to a new study from call-based marketing automation company ResponseTap, consumers in the U.S. are more than twice as likely to make a phone call when making a purchase, as opposed to purely transacting online.   

New York – The top holiday purchase items this year range from the less personal to the very personal. According to a recent online survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Macy’s among nearly 1,700 U.S. adults 18 and older who are holiday shoppers, gift cards (61%) and clothing (52%) top the list when it comes to the types of gifts that holiday shoppers plan to buy this season.    Other popular holiday items include:  

Wayne, N.J. – Holiday shoppers who are having second thoughts about counting on Santa’s elves to build them toys have a new option. Toys ‘R Us Inc. will offer extended shopping hours in the days leading up to Christmas, while also providing last-minute shoppers with enhanced and expanded "Gifts Made Easy" services.  

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is aiming last-minute holiday promotions at users of its Cartwheel mobile savings app and customers in need of product delivery or pickup. Cartwheel is offering users 50% off a different toy every day until Dec. 24.   

Buying and selling on Etsy.com is going to get a lot more social thanks to a new partnership between the Internet retailer and a social commerce platform called Shoppost.

Shoppost, owned by Zantler, is now officially available to Etsy users and gives sellers the ability to sell their products in-stream on such top social networks as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr.

Shoppers at Rite Aid stores in New York and Los Angeles will soon get a dose of 3-D along with their prescriptions as the retailer rolls out the first of its high-tech customer kiosks at 200 retail locations.