Omnichannel

In a session he led at the refocused Retail Marketing Conference in Orlando, Fla., Bill LaPierre, senior vice president of direct marketing and list firm Direct Media/Millard, discussed why traditional catalog marketers have encountered difficulty transitioning into online merchants. A recap of LaPierre's session follows, along with five pitfalls to avoid when shifting from a catalog-centric business to an online-driven operation.

Retailers encounter moments of truth that make or break their sales and marketing effectiveness multiple times each day. How they inter

In-store kiosks are a place where brick-and-mortar retailing meets the internet. It's a new initiative for Kohl's, aimed at boosting sales in whatever channel works for the customer: in the store or online.

We're not in Kansas anymore. Such could be the slogan for men's and women's apparel and accessories retailer Brooklyn Industries. Headquartered in its namesake New York City borough, the cross-channel merchant exudes a decidedly urban vibe. From the clothes it sells to the stores where those clothes are sold, Brooklyn Industries caters to the active lifestyles of its city-dweller, 25-year-old to 35-year-old demographic.

Many online retailers today offer some type of site-to-store option, such as in-store pickup from store inventory, ship-to-store or a combination of the two. As a result, now is a great time to look at what site functionality and enhancements retailers should consider leveraging when it comes to site-to-store options. What strategy changes would better engage consumers, and why should you spend scarce dollars on these options?

H&M Style Eye was sponsored by Lucky Magazine, Conde Nast Digital and MTV Networks, and was held on Facebook. Whoa, watch out multipurpose powerhouses! For the contest, users uploaded stylish photos of themselves while others voted. H&M went on to choose the three most stylish, flew them to New York for a weekend, along with a $500 H&M gift card and a photo shoot for the July issue of Lucky. Best of all (and supremely smart of H&M), the entire hoopla was shot on video and then broadcast on YouTube and Facebook.

In an early example of how a major fashion retailer is working with the iPad, Macy's is using the Apple tablet to turn its summer catalogue into a shoppable slideshow. Macy's 60-page print catalogue was converted into a two-page spread into which a 20-page slide show is embedded, with links to shop at Macys.com. The ad is running across the digital editions of 20 titles including Elle Decor and Marie Claire.

The Container Store, a leading multichannel retailer of storage and organization products, understands the importance of having a cross-channel retail strategy: Developing cross-channel customers pads its bottom line.

Customers who receive a mail piece along with regular emails have response rates 32 percent to 130 percent higher than customers who only receive email communications. This indicates the effectiveness of an integrated marketing campaign that combines direct mail and email.

Last week we saw highlights from the "Think with Google: Future of Multi-Channel" summit. Today we learn from Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist at Google, about measuring offline marketing impact online and measuring online impact offline. Watch the short 5-min video on non-line driven analytics.