It all started last summer. Like so many other women, Stacy Sasson, the wife of overstockArt.com's CEO David Sasson, got hooked on Pinterest. So hooked, in fact, that she told the company about how amazing the new social media site is. Considering that Stacy represents the target demographic for overstockArt.com, and the fact that its products are perfect for such a visual social media site like Pinterest, the retailer realized this was an opportunity it couldn't pass up.
Meredith Cunningham
Tired of Twitter? Fed up with Facebook? Forgetting about foursquare? Why not give Pinterest a try? Launched in 2010, Pinterest is an online pinboard that enables consumers to organize and share pictures of the things they love. The fast-growing social media site has caught the attention of retailers, helping Lands’ End and Zappos, among others, engage users in yet another social media outlet.
Casual clothing retailer Lands’ End took a social and multichannel approach to acquiring new customers this past holiday season with St. Nick’s Picks, a campaign that offered consumers daily deals and discounts on merchandise. St. Nick’s Picks was complemented with a “12 Hours of Twitter” campaign and Facebook fan contest.
Every online retailer knows the importance of having an optimized and easy-to-navigate website. They know they need to streamline processes, offer exceptional customer service and have an efficient checkout process. But what about brick-and-mortar stores?
It's been said ad nauseam — the customer is always right. Macy's takes that famous saying one step further by trying to provide the best customer experience possible with its My Macy's campaign.
Ever been in an airplane, on top of a roller coaster hill, ski lift or other high place and said, “I can see my house from here!”? Well, now you can add a new expression to that list: “I can see my QR code from here!”
Daily-deal e-commerce site Eversave hoped to acquire loyal customers for itself and its merchants through a new campaign that focused on quality deals. Eversave, which offers deals in 22 markets across the U.S., ran a “$10 for You, $10 for All,” campaign from Aug. 23 to Aug. 25. The campaign gave consumers $10 to spend on any merchant offering a deal through Eversave, with the $10 in Save Rewards deposited automatically into the consumer’s Eversave account.
It's not breaking news that great customer service is key for any retailer. In fact, a recent study from STELLAService found that 10.7 percent of online consumers will spend more for a great customer service experience. A session from Retail Online Integration's Retail Marketing Virtual Conference & Expo titled At Your Service: Current E-Commerce Customer Service Trends for Retailers features a roundtable discussion with retail industry leaders on best practices surrounding customer service. Will Freund, senior director of operations at Gilt Groupe; John Ernsberger, co-founder and vice president of sales at STELLAService; and John Rote, director of operations and customer experience at Bonobos, led the panel discussion.
Popular cross-channel video game retailer GameStop's loyalty program, PowerUp Rewards, has hit the 12.5 million member mark in just under a year since its launch. Consumers can sign up for the PowerUp Rewards loyalty program on GameStop's website or at one of the brand's brick-and-mortar locations. Members earn loyalty points for purchasing used games and accessories from GameStop, which can then be redeemed for rewards such as GameStop and iTunes gift cards, exclusive invites to member-only events, and other perks such as sneak peeks at newly released games.
The time has come: my college roommate is getting married. I’m extremely excited and happy for her and I have the honor of being a bridesmaid. The problem is I live in Philadelphia and she lives in Syracuse, N.Y. — a little over 250 miles away. That doesn't exactly lend itself to jumping in the car on a Saturday for a quick dress fitting. If only her selected bridesmaid dress was from Sears and we both lived in Canada ...
This month, Express is enhancing the customer experience by launching its first-ever catalog in many different channels. The company studied its customer and found that customers want to shop in many different ways. To accompany customer wants, Express added e-commerce, m-commerce and f-commerce to its resume over the last few years and the catalog seems to be the next logical step.
With today's consumers more likely than ever to be involved with some aspect of environmental, health and humanitarian issues, cause marketing has become a win-win for retailers. Getting behind a worthy cause (e.g., donating to relief efforts after Japan's tsunami, supporting cancer awareness or raising money for animal shelters) can help retailers raise a substantial amount of money for charity while at the same time improve their own brand reputation and, ultimately, grow sales
Ball Automotive Group (BAG), an automotive dealership based in San Diego, wanted a new and fun way to drive foot traffic into its dealerships. Citing Mashable's 2010 Omnicom survey, BAG noted that 75 percent of likes on Facebook come from some form of advertising and 20 million people like a brand page each day. With this information in hand, the company launched an out-of-home campaign to capture some of this market.
At the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in San Diego this past June, I stumbled upon a new iPad app that’s contributing to the mobile shopping craze. The app is called Coffee Table, and it’s revolutionizing and re-energizing the catalog industry in a very green way.
Sears has driven new traffic to its brick-and-mortar locations by partnering with SCVNGR, a social gaming and check-in service. Here's how the partnership works: While in a Sears store, consumers can pull out their smartphone, launch the SCVNGR app and check in to the Sears location they're currently at. These consumers then create a profile and begin participating in various challenges. For example, Sears' fitness and footwear department's challenge reads: "Tread Softly: Make yourself at home in the shoe aisle and find the coolest tread. Snap a photo and then caption it with where you want to leave your mark in the world!"
