Marketing Tactics

New York – Online jewelry retailer BaubleBar is making the leap to brick-and-mortar.

Launched in 2011 by two former investment bankers with Harvard MBAs, the retailer will open its first-ever, permanent brick-and-mortar location, a 1,200-sq.-ft. shop at Roosevelt Field Mall, in Garden City, New York. The mall is one of the nation’s largest shopping centers.

While the Confederate flag has been an increasing source of controversy in recent years, retailers have long sold items featuring its image with no major outcry. But following the tragic shooting in Charleston, consumer sentiment against the “Stars and Bars” intensified to a degree that made selling Confederate flag-themed merchandise unacceptable to a large portion of the public within a few days.

Toys”R”Us is curating a special lineup of toys -- and a new shop -- in anticipation of San Diego Comic-Con that is designed to appeal to the toy collector community.

Bradenton, Fla. - Champs Sports is collaborating with Under Armour on an in-store concept.

Champs will debut The Armoury at its store in The Mall in Columbia in Columbia, Maryland.

Shoppers looking for creative projects to do with their kids this summer will love a new collection from actress Jennifer Garner at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores.

The leading fabric and craft specialty retailer has launched We Made It by Jennifer Garner, a new line of creative kits for active kids, available only at Jo-Ann stores and Joann.com.

New York - Lack of a single customer view, an inability to deal with large amounts of data and lack of time for optimization are among the challenges that cause the biggest headaches for modern marketers. According to new research published by Econsultancy in partnership with SmartFocus, among the pain points marketers face are the challenges of making customer data actionable, bottlenecks caused by IT and web development teams and lack of time for campaign testing and optimization.

The report identifies the following key challenges:

Digital media company Catalina is launching a new solution that personalizes the deals found in weekly retail ad circulars. 

The program, called My Favorite Deals, is designed to increase ROI in a major area of marketing spend for U.S. retailers.

Beijing, China - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is both thinking and acting globally with a major expansion of its cross-border e-commerce initiatives. Alibaba’s new global effort includes the launch of 11 official country pavilions on its Tmall Global platform.