Social Media

New York -- Drugstore operator Duane Reade in late August passed an important milestone: It surpassed 1 million Twitter followers. The drugstore chain, which is owned by Walgreens, is most-followed retailer on Twitter in the food, drug and mass arena.

Duane Reade has garnered five times more Twitter followers than its parent company Walgreens (180,390 followers), the second-most followed drug store retailer. CVS/pharmacy, No. 3, is followed by 117,931 Twitter followers.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears Holdings is launching a menswear collection by Grammy Award-winning recording artist Adam Levine, exclusively at Kmart and ShopYourWay.com beginning Oct. 1.  

Levine's collection includes premium denim washes, outerwear, wovens, knits and accessories. 

Dallas – Neiman Marcus is introducing a redesigned blog entitled, the blog. This replaces the brand's existing blog, NMdaily.

As we transition into fall, let’s bid a fond farewell to summer 2013 by looking at how Benson’s Homemade Ice Cream, an independent seasonal ice cream parlor in the idyllic community of Boxford, Mass., uses Facebook in ways that larger retailers may want to emulate.

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The National Football League begins play soon and Procter & Gamble’s Tide brand is leveraging its relationship with all 32 teams with an innovative social media campaign.

When it comes to buying online, customers have more choice than ever. The crowded space means that shoppers are being offered countless new ways to buy and utilizing new technology to make their purchases. More important, customers are altering how they shop and taking a closer look at who they’re buying from. Shopping experiences are less a cold cash transaction and more of a way to participate in an ethos or at the very least, to support a company that understands exactly what and how you like to purchase your items.

Retailers will be promoting early and often during the upcoming holiday season, especially with six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and mobile is sure to play an even greater role this year than it did in 2012.

San Francisco – Twitter has reportedly hired former Ticketmaster president Nathan Hubbard to take the new role of head of commerce. According to Bloomberg, the 38-year-old Hubbard will oversee an effort to enable direct shopping through postings within tweets.

Hubbard is quoted as saying he does not seek to directly compete with established e-commerce retailers and payment providers but instead hopes to collaborate with them, possibly through a revenue-sharing model. He will report to Adam Bain, head of global revenue at Twitter.