Loyalty Marketing

Cost Plus World Market is giving movie lovers until Feb. 21 to participate in an online contest that should help the Bed Bath & Beyond division build its email database.

The “Movie Lovers Sweepstakes” offers film buffs a chance to win one of four grand prize packages of free movies for a year (two tickets per week for 52 weeks) and a $1,000 World Market gift card by registering with their e-mail addresses and other personal information at worldmarketsweepstakes.com.

Louisville - Gasoline and convenience-store chain Thorntons Inc. is receiving its own refreshing results from its Paytronix-powered “Refreshing Rewards” loyalty program. Since the program was launched in September 2014, Thorntons Refreshing Rewards program managers have been successfully using targeted promotions to get members to visit more frequently and are leveraging program data for category management.  

As recently as a year or two ago, “mobile retailing” was a major industry buzzword. Everyone was busy trying to figure out how to best “mobile-enable” their enterprise.

Buy online, pick up in store capabilities are being rolled out to all of Kohl’s nearly 1,200 stores this spring after a successful 100 store pilot program during the holidays.

And that just the beginning of the digital initiative the company has planned.

The addition of pick up in store to Kohl’s omnichannel offering puts the retailer on equal footing with others in the industry who have recognized in store pick up has quickly become a basic expectation shoppers have of retailers who operate physical stores.

San Francisco - Mobile is increasingly influencing all stages along the shopper’s path-to-purchase for CPG items. New research from mobile audience intelligence firm NinthDecimal examines how mobile usage and marketing is transforming how shoppers interact with CPG brands.

If you’re going to create an agenda, it may as well be an ambitious one. And the “Greatness Agenda” being pursued by Kohl’s Corp. is certainly ambitious.

“Our strategy is to be the most engaging retailer in the U.S.,” Janet Schalk, executive VP and CIO og Kohl’s, explained during an exclusive interview with Chain Store Age at the recent NRF 2015 Annual Convention & Expo in New York. “The Greatness Agenda involves initiatives across the spectrum – some front-end and some enabling.”

Seattle -- Starbucks Corp.’s first-quarter profit surged 82% as new offerings and holiday gave a boost to store traffic. Net income increased to $983.1 million, from $540.7 million a year earlier.

Consolidated net revenues the quarter, ended Dec. 28, increased 13% to $4.8 billion. Global same-store sales increased 5%, with a 2% increase in traffic. Same-store sales in the company’s U.S.-dominated region rose 5%, with a 2% increase in traffic, better than analysts had expected.

New York -- Sears Holdings has a new leader for its Kmart pharmacy division. The company announced that it has hired Phil Keough as senior VP and president, pharmacy.

Keough most recently served as CEO and president of Millennium Pharmacy Systems, a long-term care pharmacy provider, and led the sale of the company to PharMerica.