Sales & Marketing

GameStop has joined forces with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for another season of giving.  For the second year, GameStop will participate in the annual St.

Tampa, Fla. -- Outback Steakhouse is introducing Click Thru Seating. With Click Thru Seating, customers visit Outback.com from any connected device to view the current wait time at their local Outback restaurant and put their name on the waitlist for now or later.    Unlike a traditional reservation, late customers will not be dropped from the wait list or penalized. The service will also soon be available on the Outback mobile app.  

New York -- Kate Spade provided the best overall customer service in Sept. 2014. This marks the retailer’s first time topping Stella Benchmarks from customer service research firm Stella Service in 2014. The retailer ranked in every area measured across fulfillment and customer care.   

Blue Nile, the original online jeweler, has added a couple of gems to its roster with Sloane Street and Lisa Jenks joining the ranks of the Blue Nile Designer Collective.

El Segundo, Calif. –- Although Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp. saw its net income decline 17% to $7.5 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2014 from $9.1 million in the same period a year earlier, the retailer still beat Wall Street profit expectations. Big 5 also surpassed Wall Street forecasts with net sales of $265.1 million, up 2% from $259.1 million.   

Ad targeting firm Cardlytics said its secured an additional $70 million in funding led by Discovery Capital.

Cardlytics, an advertising and technology company regarded as a leader in card-linked marketing, said the new $70 million funding round brings its total venture capital funding to more than $170 million. Cardlytics intends to use the funds to continue to extend and expand the breadth of the company’s capabilities to make all marketing more relevant and measurable. Morgan Stanley acted as adviser on the deal.

New York –- For the upcoming holiday season, Macy’s is introducing the Holiday Arcade---in-store gifting shops that will launch at six Macy’s locations from late October through mid-November, including Macy’s South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif., Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco, Calif., Macy’s Dadeland in Miami, Fla., Macy’s State Street in Chicago, Macy’s Herald Square in Manhattan, N.Y., and Macy’s Center City in Philadelphia. 

By Ben Kaplan, CashStar   It is clear that mobile has an essential role in omnichannel retail, serving as the bridge between in-store and online with shoppers using their devices for product research both in and out of the store, to store and manage points, coupons and gift cards, and increasingly, to make purchases.