Content Marketing

Anyone who has gone through a home improvement project knows what a hassle it can be to find a trusted professional to do electrical, plumbing and other work. Home improvement retailer Lowe's is backing a website that it believes can make the process better for its customers. Lowe's is partnering with a startup in Seattle, Porch.com, that's come up with a novel method for recommending home improvement professionals, one that the startup's executives say is resistant to the kind of manipulation that occurs on other review sites.

Barnes & Noble said on Wednesday that Michael Huseby, the head of its digital division, has been named chief executive, effective immediately. The largest U.S. bookstore chain had been without a CEO since William Lynch resigned in July in the wake of several quarters of poor sales of Barnes & Noble's Nook e-readers. Huseby joined Barnes & Noble as finance chief in March 2012, and last summer was made head of its Nook digital unit. The bookseller, which is contending with declining book sales, is set to report its holiday sales today.

For every sensible gift of a flannel nightgown, tie or pair of socks opened on Christmas, some merry prankster will be sneaking something edgier under the tree and into the stockings — a "Duck Dynasty" Beardhead, Roadkill Summer Sausage or perhaps Camouflage TP. At least that's the hope of the people at Burnsville, Minn.-based Northern Tool + Equipment, which also owns ­Kotula's, a catalog and online retailer with a good share of hardy, har har-type gifts. 

It took almost two years, but a seller who filed a class-action lawsuit against eBay over its Featured Plus optional listing upgrade has reached a court-approved preliminary settlement. The retailer, while denying the allegations and not admitting fault, has agreed to pay $4.75 million to settle the lawsuit, including $7,500 for the seller who initiated the lawsuit. Furthermore, it stopped offering the feature earlier this year. But sellers shouldn't necessarily expect to receive a check in the mail — the default method for distributing funds to class members with active eBay accounts will be to give them account credits.

Marketers have made their lists and they're checking them twice, sometimes even three times. If the conversion needle isn't moving, you might need to rethink your digital strategy. To avoid any holiday hiccups, here are 12 tips on how your content management and personalization strategies can boost conversions, foster brand loyalty and keep customers returning year-round:

Remarketing uses website visitors’ on-site behaviors to trigger specific campaigns such as emails and retargeted advertisements. When done right, it elevates marketing from irrelevant noise into personal service, extending and differentiating the retailer and stimulating purchases. In fact, it's been shown that two times to three times more site abandoners will buy when remarketed to, making remarketing a powerful tool in a marketer's arsenal.

Gap placed strong third-quarter investments in its growth plan, including introducing omnichannel, getting the company ready next year for responsive supply chain and beginning its seamless inventory for 2015. There are several investments and strategic plans that the company will continue to stick with because they're part of the long-range plan. In that bucket are investments such as China, Old Navy International, Athleta growth, recent growth with Intermix, and the global outlet. Earlier this year, Gap decided to focus on seamless inventory in addition to its growth initiatives. 

Rounding up the year's best tips to help you optimize your business.

Plenty of retailers have leveraged user-generated content (e.g., customer photos and videos) from contests and promotions in branded marketing campaigns before, but not quite like Sears just did. The company's Startup + Developer Challenge, held this past summer, was a "code-a-thon" designed to find the best and brightest minds in the tech community of Silicon Valley — and then use those minds to Sears' benefit.

Instagram, Facebook's insanely popular photo-sharing app, introduced video capability in June to compete with the rise of Vine's bite-sized videos. Within 24 hours, Instagram's 130 million users uploaded over 5 million videos.