Winter Holidays

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens will offer customers a mystery mobile coupon to draw them to the store on Black Friday.

“This promotion is an excellent example of how technology and innovation work together to provide customers with a great offer that increases engagement and enhances their shopping experience,” stated Sona Chawla, president of e-commerce for Walgreens. “At a time when shoppers are out looking for the best deals, we’re making it easy by sending real-time, relevant offers directly to them.”

New York -- Sixty percent of Americans plan to shop in stores or online over the Thanksgiving weekend – up from 51% in 2011, according to Deloitte’s pre-Thanksgiving survey.

Among these weekend shoppers, 63% plan to shop in stores on Black Friday and 23% plan to shop in stores on Thanksgiving day (up from 17% in last year’s survey). Shoppers expect spend an average of $286 over the holiday weekend – up 28% from the 2011 survey

The survey also indicates:

Sears Holdings is looking to replicate the success it had with digital initiatives in 2011 by turning to the same firm that helped it deliver results.

For the second year in a row, Billups Design was selected to lead digital creative for Sears and Kmart Black Friday and holiday ecommerce dynamic ad campaigns. The project includes Sears and Kmart brand awareness ads, local ad business groups, and site retargeting ads with dynamic product feeds designed to increase ecommerce sales, according to Billups.

HUDSON, Ohio — Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores has launched a mobile-optimized version of Joann.com, m.joann.com, to facilitate shopping for smartphone users just in time for the holiday shopping season.

New York -- Federal labor officials said Monday they will decide quickly whether to support a request by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to stop a union-backed group from pushing worker walk-outs at hundreds of stores on Black Friday, the Associated Press reported.

The chain on Thursday filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board to stop OUR Walmart, a group made up of current and former Wal-Mart workers, from holding protests at hundreds of stores.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Sony Stores have joined shopkick, a real-world shopping app, to offer “kicks,” shopkick’s proprietary reward currency, to shoppers for visiting stores, browsing lookbooks or interacting with products.

New York -- Importers and manufacturers who sell to America's major retailers continue to be optimistic regarding a strong fourth quarter and holiday shopping season, according to Capital Business Credit, a non-bank lender that services the retail sector.

Dollar General’s 10,000 plus locations will be open Thanksgiving Day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., but it’s not taking the heat for doing so like rivals Walmart and Target.

Dollar General on Monday announced a series of online and in-store promotions, including special opening hours, designed to establish it as a holiday destination for gift givers as opposed to a convenient located stores that sell consumables.