Marketing Tactics

King of Prussia, Pa. – Online retailers are prioritizing immediate investments in customer-facing tactics such as price, marketing and customer service over strategic infrastructure for the 2014 holiday season. According to the 2014 Holiday Retail Audit, a U.S. survey of more than 1,000 ecommerce and marketing professionals from retailers with revenues of $5 million to $250 million conducted by EBay Enterprise, retailers identified a renewed focus in marketing efforts.

New York -- Nearly three-quarters (74%) of U.S. households plan to spend money on Halloween-related items, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Halloween Consumer Spending Survey. The total for Halloween-related spending is expected to be approximately $11.3 billion in 2014.

McLean, Va. - Digital identity solution provider ID.me has unveiled its new retail rewards marketplace, which helps retailers hyper-target influencers and consumer segments with exclusive offers that are protected from fraud. The new product extends ID.me’s coverage from niche affinity groups like the military and students to all consumers.

As part of its recent Fall Expo Event, Plug and Play, a Silicon Valley-based global investor and technology accelerator that specializes in growing tech startups, held a startup pitch competition with 19 companies that are part of its Brand and Retail Accelerator program.

Leading commerce platform Shopify is gearing up for its fifth annual Build A Business competition, which it touts as the world's biggest entrepreneurial contest encouraging anyone with a great business idea to start selling.

Two acquisitions in two years blended with organic growth have allowed Boot Barn to nearly double in size and lay claim to being America’s largest western and work wear retailer.

Tractor Supply with its more than 1,300 stores and Walmart might dispute that assertion — depending how western and work wear are defined — but there is no denying that Boot Barn is a retailer on the move with backing from growth oriented private equity owners.

Shopzilla wanted to highlight its recent transformation from comparison shopping to technology driven marketing solutions. To that end, it has changed its name to Connexity.

According to the company, its new solutions enable retailers and brands to understand their consumers better, acquire new customers at a lower cost and increase sales based on retail signals that it provides.

Dole has teamed up with actress Ali Larter to introduce Dole Garden Soup, a premium line of packaged, ready-to-serve soups.

According to Dole, the line of soups — which is packaged in BPA-free boxes — has no preservatives or MSG, and is available in five low-fat, gluten-free and cholesterol-free varieties: Roasted Garlic Tomato Basil, Tomato Vegetable, Carrot Ginger, Southwestern Black Bean & Corn and Sweet Corn.

The Skippy peanut butter brand is launching a multifaceted regional ad campaign — its first in more than five years and the first ever under Hormel Foods ownership.

After undergoing global positioning research for the Skippy brand, Hormel Foods decided to bring to life “the simple joy of eating peanut butter” across various brand platforms, from marketing to product innovations, and of course, in the new multimedia advertising campaign.

Recent executive leadership changes at Spanx have set the stage for change and a new phase of growth.

The company has promoted Jill MacRae to EVP, global commerce. MacRae began her career at Spanx in sales, and most recently lead all aspects of product and consumer marketing development as the VP of marketing.