Marketing Tactics

Whole Foods is aiming to make life for customers in 15 cities a little more convenient. The company has entered into a partnership with grocery delivery service Instacart that enables customers to have Whole Foods Market products delivered to them in one hour.

Customers will soon also be able to place orders via Instacart and pick them up local participating Whole Foods Market stores, making Whole Foods the first national Instacart partner to offer the in-store pickup service.

CVS Health has completed the purchase of Miami-based Navarro Discount Pharmacy.

The acquisition includes Navarro's 33 retail locations and Navarro Health Services, a specialty pharmacy serving patients with complex or chronic diseases. The retail pharmacies will retain the Navarro Discount Pharmacy name.

Kansas City, Kansas -- Legends Outlets Kansas City announced that Coach is extending the stay of the area’s first Coach Factory pop-up location through the holidays, until January 2015.
 
Coach Factory opened its pop-up before Memorial Day weekend and has added new inventory almost daily since opening.
 

Instagram has become a mainstream social media tool for retailers. However, while most retailers limit their Instagram usage to maintaining an official page or encouraging customers to post photos with Instagram hashtags as part of promotional campaigns, some retailers are more forward-thinking in their Instagram approach.

Here are three retailers showing real insight in how they are leveraging Instagram to its fullest potential:

By Sanford Stein, founder, Stein LLC

With the point-of-sale tucked away in one’s backpack, pocket or purse, how does the store-based retailer expect to survive in an e-everything world? And what is to become of the malls, the meccas of economic indulgence that were driven by the shop-till-you-drop dynamic we thought would last forever? We are currently in a period of just such a change wave, driven by a dramatic demographic shift, corporate downsizing, economic stagnation, and rising costs.

Pittsburgh – Dick’s Sporting Goods has launched an extensive update of its mobile app. The updated app offers features including access to the ScoreCard rewards program, a store locator, and in-app purchase functionality.

Venice, Calif. – Vertical denim retailer Rialto Jean Project (RJP) opens a month-long pop-up shop on Sept. 5 in New York's South Street Seaport, in conjunction with the New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer presentations kicking off around Manhattan.

Phoenix – Sprouts Farmers Market has teamed up with Nashville, Tenn.-based integrated ad agency Redpepper to use omnichannel marketing to produce market awareness and traffic for four new stores in the suburban Atlanta area. In addition to traditional outdoor, print, radio and newspaper ads, Sprouts used Facebook- and email-based marketing techniques.

J.C. Penney is launching a new online sports store that will be powered by Fanatics, an online retailer of officially licensed sports merchandise.

Fanatics operates an e-commerce platform for hundreds of collegiate and professional sports teams, leagues and media sites. Now, it will provide sports fans with a selection of team apparel and merchandise at JCPenney.com, offering more than 300,000 licensed products spanning all the major sports leagues.

Living Proof has promoted Grace Ray to CEO. Ray has served as chief marketing officer since 2011, and succeeds Jill Beraud, who is heading to Tiffany & Co. as EVP of global retail operations.

The company credits Ray with being instrumental in its growth in the past several years. The company said that Ray worked with the Living Proof team to deliver a portfolio of award-winning and game-changing products, increase the brand's awareness and leverage co-owner Jennifer Aniston in powerful marketing campaigns to drive double-digit sales growth.