Loyalty Marketing

Fast growing grocery delivery service Instacart is adding a value-oriented chain to its network of grocery stores.

The company announced it is teaming up with Smart & Final to allow customers in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area to choose from virtually any items carried at their local Smart & Final store and have them delivered in as little as one hour.

Prices on Instacart will match Smart & Final's everyday low in-store prices, excluding special offers.

Stores are once again the darlings of retail — even e-commerce pure plays are scrambling to establish brick-and-mortar locations, while established brands are busy exploring new ways to leverage their existing physical footprint. Many predicted that the store would survive — and indeed thrive — but few realized the full degree to which stores would become a coveted link within today’s customer-driven “commerce anywhere” shopping experience.

As retailers race to make their gift registry services more interactive, Belk is launching a new wedding registry app.

In addition to in-store kiosks, registrants can now set up a registry, manage their registry and scan items using their smartphones.

The app features tips on what to register for and a registry checklist to make sure no items are missed. Any time a registrant is in the store and sees a new item they would like to add, they can scan from their smart phone to immediately add the item to their registry.

Shifting landscapes can make it difficult to focus on the exciting opportunities that result from major market changes. The constant evolution of the digital space fueled by rapidly advancing technology and elusive consumer preferences may leave retailers feeling weary about digital promotions. Frustration over this seemingly unending race causes many to long for the days and simplicity of traditional print promotions.

New York — If credit card issuers stopped offering rewards, a slight majority of American credit cardholders wouldn’t change their spending habits. According to a new Bankrate.com survey, 51% of U.S. credit card holders say they would keep using the card the same way they did previously.    Another 26% would use the card less often and 19% would stop using it entirely.  

E-commerce traffic increased 18% in the first quarter, according to the latest Shopping Index from Demandware.

The report measures digital commerce growth and identifies the trends driving that growth based on analysis of same site activity over time. The latest Demandware Shopping Index reveals that shopper attraction, which measures the number of shoppers, was up 18% in the first quarter of 2015 over the first quarter last year and drove 83% of the digital commerce growth.

New York — Online traffic rose 18% in the first quarter, according to Demandware's latest  Shopping Index. The study also reveals that the duration of mobile shopping visits decreased 43% in the first quarter, down to 8.4 minutes. Overall shopping episodes were also down 31% to 8.9 minutes.  

By Joe Dalton    As technologies advance, social channels proliferate, and consumers become more plugged into digital marketing, personalization and contextualization is becoming the key to connecting with customers. While consumers build their online identities simply by using their devices for everything from browsing to averting traffic, they leave trails of their preferences, behavior, and values that retailers can draw upon to appeal to the interests of each individual customer.