Sales & Marketing

Retail employees are using mobile communication technology in their jobs, but a more established channel is still most popular.

According to a study of 500 professionals within a variety of industries including retail from Infinite Convergence Solutions, 57% of retail employees use email most frequently for business communication. This made email significantly more popular than mobile messaging; (24%) or voice calling (19%).

It’s not going to be so easy for the 11 million-plus active members of Starbuck Corp.’s loyalty program to earn freebies.

Starting in mid-April, the coffee giant is making a change in its “My Starbucks Rewards” loyalty program whereby members will earn points, or “stars,” based on the dollars spent on the purchase. Currently, customers earn a star for each transaction, regardless of how much they spent, and are entitled to a free item after earning 12 stars.

A brand best known for its whimsical neckties and smiling pink whale logo is opening a flagship in the Big Apple.

Vineyard Vines will open a 6,000-sq.-st. store in Grand Central Station. The company is also slated to open stores at Somerset Collection, Troy, Michigan, in early May, at Hyde Park in Tampa, Florida, in August, and at Stanford Town Center in mid-March and The Village of Corte Madera in mid-June (with the latter two locations in California).

Digital exploration and the customer experience are at the heart of two new concept stores from wireless carrier O2.

The stores were designed to revolutionize the look and feel of a traditional mobile phone shop and provide a destination for people to not just buy a phone, but to learn about the latest technology.

Shoppers on the go show distinct preferences in the types of products they engage with.

According to a study of 10,000 U.S. websites across 24 categories by website/mobile analytics provider SimilarWeb, cosmetics sites such as Ulta (76% of online visits from mobile devices) and Sephora (69% mobile share), have helped the beauty and fitness sector achieve a market-leading 67.25% share of all its visits via mobile phones, in comparison to desktop visits.

A disconnect between brick-and-mortar retailers and their mobile strategies could be hurting sales.

Retailing Today's sister publication Chain Store Age recently spoke with Vishwa Chandra, VP of retail accounts for Instacart, to get a better sense of the current and future state of online delivery.
 
What is driving growing consumer interest in online delivery?

Although not many consumers are currently shopping for groceries online, those who do are likely to be repeat customers.
 
According to “The 2016 Online Grocery Shopper,” a survey of more than 500 U.S. online consumers from Toronto-based grocery technology provider Unata, 8% of consumers bought groceries via Internet in 2015.

However, 93% of those shoppers said they are “likely” or “very likely” to buy groceries online in 2016.