Loyalty Marketing

Corner Bakery Cafe is in a growth mode. The company, which was acquired in 2011 by Roark Capital Group, an Atlanta-based private equity firm, is entering new markets and opening locations across the country, from New York City to Las Vegas. It will end the year with 185 cafes (114 company-owned and 71 franchised). The company plans to more than double its U.S. footprint by 2017 through a combination of franchised and company-owned cafes.

Gary Price, a restaurant executive with over 20 years of experience, joined Corner Bakery Cafe as president in October 2012.

New York - Twitter keeps on coming up with new ways to let advertisers connect with consumers—and now it’s moving into the brick-and-mortar space. In its first  On Tuesday, the social media giant launched a pilot for a new feature called Twitter Offers, which enables brands and companies to create card-linked promotions and share them directly with Twitter users. The user can redeem the discount simply by paying with the synced card in the retailer’s physical store or online shop.

Apex, N.C. - TechPay Mobile Payment Systems has launched the SwiftPay mobile payment system. SwiftPay requires no new hardware for the merchant to install, it integrates directly into the retailer’s existing system.

New York - Forty-one percent of consumers plan to head to the stores on Black Friday,18% plan to shop in a physical store on Thanksgiving, and 32% of consumers will hit the stores on the following Saturday and/or Sunday, according to new data from the International Council of Shopping Centers. More than one-third (36%) of consumers plan to go to a physical store on Cyber Monday.

Some of the biggest names in the retail industry have partnered with a new online shopping and fundraising platform called iMyne, which aims to make it easy for consumers to earn money and give to their favorite causes after shopping online.

Like other rewards sites, imyne.com gives shoppers the option of earning cash back. But it also allows them to send their cash back to charitable causes. Top retailers such as Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Target, Sears, Home Depot, Gap, Best Buy, Saks, Zappos and more have all signed up as retail partners.

New York - Amazon is once again tops in online customer satisfaction, but its leadership is eroding, according to a study by Answers.com, a provider of  cloud-based customer experience solutions. Amazon is down four points from its 2013 score of 84 (on a 100-point scale), and leads QVC.com and Netflix by just one point. 

BJ's Wholesale Club has introduced a Mastercard program that ups the ante in the wholesale club credit card category. The My BJ's Perks MasterCard will offer members 10 cents off per gallon of BJ's gas every day, up to 5% back on purchases in-club and at BJs.com, 2% back on eating out and non-BJ's gas purchases, and 1% back on purchases made everywhere else MasterCard is accepted.  

New York — BJ's Wholesale Club’s Mastercard program ups the ante in the wholesale club credit card category. The new My BJ's Perks MasterCard will offer members 10 cents off per gallon of BJ's gas, up to 5% back on purchases in-club and at BJs.com, 2% back on eating out and non-BJ's gas purchases, and 1% back on purchases made everywhere else MasterCard is accepted.