Marketing Tactics

Online home and housewares retailer Wayfair.com is prepared to go public and has some of the biggest names on Wall Street lined up to sell its shares.

Wayfair.com, one of world’s largest online destinations for home furnishings and décor items, has grown sales rapidly in recently years, but true to form with other aspiring online retailers, its losses have increased as its spends more on marketing.

A new initiative at Books-A-Million called “The Write Stuff” will reveal whether book buyers value the opinions of the retailer’s merchants.

In the coming weeks, Books-A-Million will roll out its “The Write Stuff” program online and in stores. The program revolves around use of a Write Stuff logo next to different titles which signifies they were hand selected by the retailer’s buying staff.

Head & Shoulders and brand ambassador Sofia Vergara are leveraging social media for the shampoo’s latest contest. And the winner gets to meet Vergara.

“I’m excited to give one of my fans the chance to become part of my family for a day,” said Vergara. “Everyone knows eight out of nine Vergaras use Head & Shoulders, now we’re looking for the 10th! We’re looking for someone who flaunts their beautiful, flake-free hair with a little Vergara attitude!”

The Quest for Texas Best competition is a project of H-E-B Primo Picks, a two-year old statewide program that aims to find the best food and beverage products that Texas has to offer.

Judges whittled nearly 600 submissions from across the Lone Star State to 25 finalists. Submissions came from 128 towns across the state, yielding a mix of jams, jellies, spices and meats. Entries spanned 74 categories including beer, butter, cookies and milk, muffins, Mexican pastries, pickles, sauces and teas.

As Little League Baseball and Softball turns 75, the Heinz has been named the league’s official condiment and will play a role in upcoming events.

Nordstrom’s Sarah Jessica Parker line of handbags and shoes will be sold in five more stores this fall, bringing the total number of stores carrying the collection to 30.

The company announced Monday that locations in Troy, Michigan; Bellevue, Washington; Skokie, Illinois; Austin, Texas; and Newport Beach, California would start carrying the film and TV star’s products. To accompany the expansion, Parker will tour three malls from Aug. 21-23 to promote her line.

Snyder's-Lance, a leading manufacturer and distributor of premium snacks, recently marked the first anniversary of its state-of-the-art Research and Development Center.

The center, located near one of the company's largest bakeries in Hanover, Pennsylvania, has been instrumental in the research and development of new product introductions that are both innovative and in line with consumer trends, according to the company.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in July 2013 versus July 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. The start of the back-to-school season saw large decreases in these metrics for both Staples and Walmart across the board. Walmart continued its trend of smaller, less dense, highly-targeted and themed circulars. It barely touched on BTS on the front pages of its July 2013 circulars, with only a small laptop ad and some apparel promotions. 2014 saw a more concentrated effort as early as 7/13, prominently featuring notebooks, glue sticks, and crayons.

It’s time for customers who shop at Macy’s to feel extra good as the retailer gears up for its ninth annual national “Shop For A Cause” charity event Saturday, Aug. 23.

The one-day-only shopping event was created to support local charities’ fundraising efforts. Since 2006, the program has helped raise more than $44 million for thousands of charities across the country.

Bentonville, Ark. -- A day after announcing a disappointing second quarter, Wal-Mart Stores has made an aggressive holiday promise to its customers: the world’s largest retailer says it will staff every cash register from the day after Thanksgiving through the days just before Christmas during peak shopping times.

Wal-Mart’s "checkout promise" is aimed at addressing lengthy waits in checkout lines.