Industry Eye: Prospecting - The Container Store, Talbots, Crazy 8

Mobile Discounts Drive Retail Traffic for Container Store
Storage products retailer The Container Store began offering discounts for the first time in April. The move coincided with the retailer’s mobile marketing launch. Working with mobile couponing provider Yowza!!, The Container Store, which also sells online and through catalogs, uses mobile coupons to lure consumers into its 47 stores. The marketer’s spokesperson Audrey Robertson estimates that prospects represent 20 percent of all transactions matched back to its mobile coupons.

Average order values for mobile transactions are nearly 2.5 times greater than the company’s regular average order value.

Not targeted to a specific demographic, the mobile coupons are available to all iPhone users. Container Store employees scan the barcode straight from the phone’s screen. While the brand’s primary demographic — upscale professional women in their mid 30s to 50s — has been receptive to mobile, the channel also has attracted new customers.

The effort also targets recent college grads. “They’ve got iPhones,” Robertson says, “and they’re discovering The Container Store through this.” —Joe Keenan

Talbots’ Fall Catalog Back to Prospecting
A rough fiscal second quarter that saw Talbots’ sales plummet by 23 percent to $305 million ended Aug. 1. The conservative women’s apparel retailer sought to restart this fall with several prospecting initiatives.

Although the company cut catalog circulation by 25 percent during the quarter, as well as its third quarter ending Nov. 1, President/CEO Trudy Sullivan said during a recent earnings call with analysts, “We’re looking to broaden our reach beyond our core customer and reactivate [those] customers … we’re prospecting.”

Talbots eliminated unproductive catalogs last year and is focusing prospecting efforts on its 12-month to 18-month buyer file. Last year it went as deep as its 24-month file. “The result in the 12- to 18-month [file] was two times better than the deeper file,” Sullivan said, “so we have prioritized our spend there.”

In August, Talbots enhanced its website’s navigation and product information, emphasizing personalization of content and product recommendations, thereby improving segmentation of its customer file. —Paul Miller

Crazy 8 is Going Coupon Crazy
Crazy 8, the Gymboree Corp.’s retail brand that offers low-end kids’ apparel and accessories, uses a variety of on- and offline coupons to get parents into its 37 stores or onto its website, Crazy8.com. Earlier this fall, for example, Crazy 8 offered a $10-off-$30 promotion to new email addresses that signed up to receive promotional emails from Crazy 8. The promotion was only available online, and promotion codes were sent to new email addresses in separate welcome/confirmation emails after sign-up.

But that’s just one example. Also this summer, the brand enabled customers to earn $20 in “Crazy Cash” for every $40 spent in a single transaction.

When customers spent $40 in any Crazy 8 store or on Crazy8.com, $20 worth of “Crazy Cash” was loaded onto coupons for purchases of $40 or more, applicable at the stores or online between Sept. 24 and Oct. 4. If their qualifying purchases earned more than one Crazy Cash coupon, the value was loaded onto their coupons in $20 increments.

Finally, for a limited time this year, Crazy 8 offered a $5 flat-rate shipping deal on every online order. —Melissa Campanelli