Omnichannel

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens recently surpassed 1 million fans on Facebook, the pharmacy operator announced Friday, and also has integrated its network of more than 7,700 drug stores through mobile platforms on Facebook Places and Foursquare.

Consequently, Walgreens has quickly become the chain drug store retailer with the largest following on Foursquare, while developing a growing presence on other social communities, including Twitter and YouTube.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens said Friday it has surpassed 1 million fans on Facebook, and has also integrated its network of more than 7,700 drug stores through mobile platforms on Facebook Places and Foursquare.

Walgreens said it has become the chain drugstore retailer with the largest following on Foursquare, while developing a growing presence on other social communities, including Twitter and YouTube.

BOISE, Idaho — Albertsons is pulling the plug on its self-checkout units, which will be replaced by standard "H" lanes or express lanes, the grocer has confirmed.

The 217-store grocer has self-checkout units installed in roughly 100 of its stores. Those units will be removed by the end of the summer.

According to the grocer, the self-checkout units prevent it from providing the level of customer service it wants to offer its shoppers.

New York City -- With same-store sales increases of 6.7% and 7.5% respectively, Macy’s and Kohl’s outperformed rival J.C. Penney in June, as J.C. Penney came up short of Wall Street estimates with a slight 2% gain.

Macy’s saw total sales rise 7.5% in June to $2.4 billion.

“Sales growth in June exceeded our expectations,” said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and CEO. “Once again, the growth came from across the company -- Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores and online sites.”

Freeport, Maine -- L.L. Bean has launched a mobile commerce website that allows shoppers the ability to search, browse, purchase and read product ratings and reviews from any Internet-enabled mobile phone.

Key features of L.L. Bean’s new mobile shopping experience include: site search, store finder, L.L. Bean Visa Card coupon lookup, click to call customer service, ratings and reviews, e-mail sign up and complete product descriptions.

Atlanta -- Citi announced Thursday that it has renewed its U.S. private-label credit card partnership with Office Depot.
 
“The Office Depot Business Credit Card and the Office Depot Personal Credit Card both provide our customers with the increased spending power they need in these economic times,” said George Hill, senior VP store operations, Office Depot.

New York City -- Tourneau opened a new concept store in Manhattan. The 3,135-sq.-ft. space offers a dramatic departure from traditional jewelry and watch stores in that it does not have counters. Instead, it features a series of long tables in the main showroom that can be approached from all sides.

Tourneau employees, equipped with iPads in hand, unlock the cases when customers want to look at a watch.

The new store was created by San Francisco-based architecture firm Eight Inc., which has also worked on the Apple stores.
 

By now, any digital marketing executive realizes that with more than 700 million users worldwide, Facebook’s “population” would make it the third largest nation in the world, and a platform that is too big to ignore. And just like any other country, there are some fundamental elements required to feed and foster the populace (aka – your customers, potential customers and fans).