Loyalty Marketing

Seattle - Starbucks Coffee Co. is reportedly planning to pilot mobile ordering in an undisclosed U.S. geographic location before the end of 2014. According to Re/Code, the pilot will let consumers place orders through the Starbucks mobile app.

Starbucks definitely intends to roll out mobile ordering chain-wide at some point, and has created a cross-departmental team to work on issues such as how long a hot beverage can stay warm. The retailer expects the program to boost customer loyalty.

By Anders Ekman, DataMentors

With back-to-school season underway, Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores is looking to drive student traffic to its stores with an exclusive savings offering for qualified students between now and July 31.

Denver – Eloyalty is packaging its omnichannel customer experience cloud technology solution as a white label offering, making its solution available to select partners across a range of industries. The white label offering can be delivered through a private, hybrid or public cloud.

ELoyalty's infrastructure delivers a range of tools to enhance companies' relationships with customers and improve internal workforce operations. The new white label offering extends functionality in the following areas:

Welcome to CSA First Look, a showcase for new stores and formats. This inaugural edition spotlights the first physical store of  hot Internet start-up Birchbox, the 800,000 members and growing beauty subscription company. Located in Manhattan's SoHo, the  duplex-styled, 4,500-sq.-ft. store combines the hottest new products with beauty services and weekly make-up classes. Similar to the Birchbox web site, the store puts a big emphasis on expert advice and reader reviews, offered via the touchcreens and iPads located throughout the space.  

Sears and Kmart recently announced they will allow pickup of Sears.com or Kmart.com orders at any of each other's more than 2,000 U.S. stores. Customers will be able to select free store pickup and a preferred pickup location for specially marked online items. The retailers are even taking the digitally progressive step of offering online video instruction through the YouTube channel for members of the Sears/Kmart Shop Your Way omnichannel loyalty program.

By Russ Wilson, IBM director, Mobile Innovation Center

Millennials’ comfort with mobile technology, in a world where just about everything can be done with an app,  is driving businesses to provide apps of their own – enabling the purchasing of products and services in a way that is more natural to this tech savvy generation.

Staples has completed its acquisition of all the issued and outstanding common shares of PNI for consideration of C$1.70 per share pursuant to a plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia).