Loyalty Marketing

Washington, D.C. - Americans love giving and receiving gift cards. According to a survey of more than 1,100 U.S. consumers from the Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA), 77% of consumers have given a gift card in the past year and 90% have received at least one in the past year.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. - Sears and Kmart will allow pick up 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 order will then ship to the chosen store and the customer will receive an email confirmation when it is ready for pickup. The customer has three pickup options – with each one offered in five minutes or less:

Ikea has partnered with Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization, to sponsor an in-store program that supports national children's hunger programs.

These programs include giving free meals and snacks to low income children, as well as giving out nutritious easy-to-prepare food for children to take home on weekends, in addition to other programs to meet the needs of hungry children.

Denver - While on summer vacation, nearby location trumps brands for many types of consumer purchases, and mobile devices will be the dominant form of search. A new study conducted by location marketing automation provider Placeable shows that proximity is apparently so important that only 1% of vacationers consider reviews when looking to replace a forgotten item.

Toronto – Tim Hortons and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) are launching the new CIBC Tim Hortons Double Double Visa Card, leveraging a two-button technology that allows cardholders to press the CIBC Visa button on the front of the card to pay for their purchases anywhere Visa is accepted. One percent of each dollar spent is converted instantly into Tim Cash rewards, and by touching the Tim Card button, cardholders can then redeem their Tim Cash loyalty points at Tim Hortons locations.

Overstock.com is offering free Club O loyalty program memberships to active police officers, full-time firefighters, paramedics and certified emergency medical technicians.

Austin, Texas - Retailers have barely reached the halfway mark in their journey to omnichannel maturity. According to the results of a new report from Starmount and Retail Systems Research (RSR) that asked retailers to rate themselves on six dimensions of omnichannel maturity, the lowest overall rankings (an average score of 2.7 on a six-point scale) were in omnichannel order and fulfillment capabilities.

In addition, 67% of retailers were “inefficient” or worse at integrating in-store and digital experiences. Other findings include:

While on summer vacation, nearby location trumps brands for many types of consumer purchases, and mobile devices will be the dominant form of search. A new study conducted by location marketing automation provider Placeable shows that proximity is apparently so important that only 1% of vacationers consider reviews when looking to replace a forgotten item.