Marketing Tactics

Tech Guest Viewpoint - Proximity Marketing brings Shoppers to Stores
By Alex Romanov, iSign Media The holiday season is a time of family, food, and frenzied shopping. Consumers are bombarded by messages, promotions, discounts, and offers, and retailers have to be smart about how they reach out to their customers. Email blasts or paper coupons just won’t cut it. In this mobile-obsessed era, proximity marketing is a powerful way to break through the noise and bring shoppers into your store.
Kohl’s to keep stores open Dec. 19-24
Menomonee Falls, Wis. – Consumers who want to shop at odd hours to avoid dealing with holiday crowds will have plenty of opportunities at Kohl’s. Kohl’s Department Stores will keep its doors open for more than 100 hours straight from 6 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 19 through 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Wednesday, Dec. 24.

Abercrombie CEO Michael Jeffries out

New York - In an abrupt move, Michael Jefferies, the longtime and often controversial chief of Abercrombie & Fitch, has retired as CEO and stepped down from the company’s board, effective immediately. His retirement caught the industry by surprise, particularly since it comes in the middle of the crucial holiday selling season.
ECRM: Retail circular advertising trends, November 2014

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in November 2013 vs. November 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. Home Depot added an additional Black Friday 2014 circular promoting appliances. Home Depot offered deep Black Friday 2014 discounts on microwaves. Staples increased circular pages by +38%, and featured an attractive “Free Kindle eReader with laptop purchase” and a $99 Asus laptop on the Black Friday 2014 circular front. Walgreens had little change in November circular metrics but CVS cut 9 pages; a 10% decline.
Sales soar at Burlington Stores

Burlington Stores Inc. CEO Tom Kingsbury reported an unexpected sales spike in the third quarter, prompting the company to enthusiastically boost its outlook for the year.
CEO out of fashion at Abercrombie

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has turned to a Sears veteran for leadership after longtime and occasionally divisive CEO Michael Jeffries abruptly retired.

Abercrombie announced it will be run by a newly created Office of the Chairman, which includes former Sears CEO and current non-executive chairman of Abercrombie; COO Jonathan Ramsden; Christos Angelides, who oversees the Abercrombie & Fitch division; and Fran Horowitz, who leads Hollister.

Martinez retired from Sears in 2000 after serving as chairman and CEO there for five years.
FirstData: Retail dollar volume up 5.3% Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

Year-over-year (YOY) retail dollar volume from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday grew 5.3%, a decrease from last year’s growth of 7.4%, according to First Data 2014 SpendTrend Holiday Shopping Spend Analysis, which examined consumer spending from more than one million merchant locations over the five-day period.Similarly, retail transaction growth was 5.0% compared to 6.0% in 2013.
Store of the Week: Hunter, London

British heritage brand Hunter sets the stage for global expansion with a flagship that offers a modern take on British countryside icons.

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Guildford Town Centre reaches out to consumers with 3 Tier Logic

Surrey, Canada - Guildford Town Centre, a shopping center in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, is reaching out to customers across multiple channels and points of engagement. The center retained 3 Tier Logic, a wholly-owned subsidiary of 3TL Technologies, to use its Platform3 technologies to drive consumer foot traffic, gather in-depth data about shoppers, and increase social media engagement.
Phillips Edison adopts LOC Card to enhance customer engagement

Cincinnati - Phillips Edison & Company announced a partnership with the LOC Card, a consumer engagement platform from LOC Enterprises which allows customers to participate in merchants’ loyalty programs and access their data and information from each program all in one place.
RadioShack gets ‘weird’ for the holidays

Eighties sensation Weird Al Yankovic is offering RadioShack a new hope for the holidays.

Yankovic is appearing in the chain's holiday ad campaign called "Gift Smart.” In the ad, he sings his own unique take on the holiday song “Toyland.”

"He's tech-savvy, smart and a social media guru," said RadioShack chief marketing officer Jennifer Warren. Yankovich has more than 3.5 million Twitter followers and 1.6 million Facebook fans. "I don't think there could be a better fit for our brand right now."
Report: Mobile shoppers prefer Sundays

A new report looking at consumer shopping habits on mobile phones shows that Sunday is the best day of the week when it comes to sales from mobile shoppers.

"Online shopping has become a major force in global markets. And, with the holiday shopping season upon us in the United States, we see mobile's share of that market accelerating," said Larry Moores, vice president for consumer mobile reporting and analytics at Opera Software, a leading mobile internet and advertising company.