Social Media

Teaneck, N.J. – Online shopping is here to stay and increasingly occurring across a variety of channels.

According to the sixth annual Shopping Experience Study of more than 5,000 consumers by Cognizant, 64% of respondents said they buy online at least once a month, and 13% make weekly purchases.

Whole Foods Market is sharing the love with its consumers, across channels.

Austin, Texas – Whole Foods Market is sharing the love with its consumers, across channels.

From Sept. 9 to Nov. 3, the Whole Foods Love Fest will offer special deals and events including surprises on its local and national social media channels.

Other features will include weekly $500 giveaways in stores, weekly product offers, and customized events and giveaways.

Toronto – Consumers are willing share their personal data with brands — even though they feel they aren’t getting much value in return.

According to a new study from marketing loyalty and analytics provider Aimia, 80% of consumers around the world are willing to share key pieces of personal information with brands.  

Yet only 8% of consumers around the world feel as though they are actually receiving better offers from companies as a result of sharing their details.

Multi-channel retailer HSN is parterning with a tennis legend and fashion icon for an innovative shopping event during New York Fashion Week.

HSN Inc. has announced that Williams will be live-streaming her fall Signature Statement Collection during a special HSN.com "Front Row" event during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 15. The retailer aims to transform the way designers bring their collection to market by allowing fans of Williams's fall collection to shop the runway online immediately after the show.

Menlo Park, Calif. – As eBay celebrates its 20th anniversary, a new competitor in the online trading market is emerging.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is making it easier for consumers to use its Groups feature to buy, sell and/or trade goods.

Facebook began allowing users to create “for sale” groups late in 2014. However, the social media giant is no longer requiring creators of for sale groups to obtain its official approval before launching them.

Philadelphia – Marketers are largely not conscious of the full potential social images (such as Instagram posts) hold for their email marketing efforts.

According to new research from Curalate and Movable Ink, while 76% of marketer emails include social media buttons, only 14% include social images.

PetSmart is throwing a celebration at its stores that aims to appeal to pet owners and people who want to be pet owners.

For the first time, PetSmart will throw a “Happy Gotcha Day” celebration to help find homes for about 15,000 homeless pets during the next PetSmart Charities National Adoption Weekend, Sept. 11-13, when more than 1,400 PetSmart stores will host the event in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. The thousands of pets with unknown birthdays that are expected to be adopted will now have a day to call their own.

With the explosion of online retail giants like Amazon.com, the new digital economy has turned traditional consumer buying behavior upside down, making your everyday salesperson seemingly obsolete. In fact, according to Invesp, more than 62% of U.S. consumers with Internet access shop online at least once a month and 78% of those shoppers don’t check out a product in-store before buying online.