MARKETING/SOCIAL MEDIA

The brand best known for its smiling pink whale logo is improving pricing, design and buying decisions by using an innovative data source.   By partnering with First Insight, Vineyard Vines will leverage the company’s online social engagement tools to gather real-time product pricing and sentiment data from its customers. This information will then be analyzed by First Insight’s predictive models.   

Best Buy ranks highest in customer satisfaction in the $24 billion-plus appliance market.    That's according to the J.D. Power 2017 Appliance Retailer Satisfaction Study. With a score of 857, Best Buy came out on top, ahead of Lowe's (840), The Home Depot (839), Hhgregg (831) and Sears (828). Overall satisfaction with appliance retailers in 2017 is 838 points, up from 821 in 2016.   

Retailers who wait until late summer this year to launch back-to-school deals are only hurting themselves, because early shoppers will spend more than late starters.    That's according to Deloitte's "2017 Back-to-School Survey," which also detected a big shift in where back-to-school will be shopping this year. One thing that hasn't changed: In-store still prevails.   

Even back-to-school shopping is not what it once was.    U.S. students may still go back to school around the same general time each year, but the timing of BTS shopping has changed in recent years, becoming less consistent and less predictable. That's according to the Back-to-School report from The NPD Group, which finds that BTS shopping is starting earlier and lasting longer.    

Estée Lauder is making it even easier for online customers to choose — and purchase — their next tube of lipstick.   Through its partnership with ModiFace, the beauty retailer launched a chatbot that helps customers find their ideal lipstick color. The conversational lipstick "advisor," which is accessible on Facebook Messenger, enables online and mobile users to interact with two of Estée Lauder’s lipstick lines.  

A smaller-format, neighborhood-oriented retailer beat out big-box competitors to rank as the nation's favorite home improvement retailer in a just-released study.    Ace Hardware, known for its neighborly service and an intense focus on the customer experience, earned the top spot, with a composite loyalty score of 63%, in a study by Market Force Information.   

Amazon hasn't make it to the head of the class for this year's back-to-school shopping season.   Among young U.S. shoppers (ages 18-24), 64% said they will buy back-to-school items from Target and Walmart, respectively, edging out Amazon (50%). This is according to a new consumer survey from the retail app platform, Branding Brand.  

J.C. Penney is enhancing customer benefits in its loyalty program.   The retailer is debuting a revample program that allows Sephora customers to double-dip on rewards and also allows earned points to roll over from month to month, reported the Dallas News.