Promotional Strategy

Designing your own fragrance with a master perfumer in Paris, then having your personal scent presented in 14-karat gold bottles is not, in fact, priceless. It costs $475,000. The trip is

Thanksgiving could turn into a full shopping day this year, industry consultants say, as retailers debate moving up their openings and doorbuster events. While retailers aren't expected to announce any special Thanksgiving hours until the second half of October or into November, "it's inevitable to see them open all day or even earlier than last year," said Joel Bines, managing director and co-leader of consulting firm AlixPartners’ retail practice, in an interview.

Our marketing experts will discuss key online and offline merchandising best practices and strategies.

It's back-to-school season, which means another article about Ikea's fall catalog. Since the Swedish furniture retailer's catalog was first introduced in 1951, consumers have eagerly awaited the beautifully designed book/catalog, showcasing the brand's unique and well-designed products.

A day after announcing a disappointing second quarter, Wal-Mart has made an aggressive holiday promise to its customers: the world's largest retailer says it will staff every cash register from the day after Thanksgiving through the days just before Christmas during peak shopping times. Wal-Mart's "checkout promise" is aimed at addressing lengthy waits in checkout lines. "We feel good about price and having the top gifts of the season, so the next priority is about getting customers in and out of the stores quickly," Duncan Mac Naughton, Wal-Mart's chief merchandising officer, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Retailers such as Ann Taylor and J.Crew have refashioned their direct mail brochures as "style guides." Besides magazine-type content like interviews with celebrities, these print pieces include fashion tips and trend reports. Here's a quick look at two examples that recently popped up in the mail — specifically, how they deliver a rich experience to readers while at the same time keeping direct mail very relevant.

Hear answers to the most-asked Amazon questions; best practices for retailers selling on Amazon; and what NOT to do on Amazon.

While Black Friday weekend suffered the first spending decline since 2009, Cyber Monday increased nearly 20 percent to a record level, according to ComScore. Online retail sales reached nearly $2 billion, with mobile devices generating more than 17 percent of online purchases, according to IBM. Clearly, the lure of deeper discounts while steering clear (as in, not being in the car at all) of crazy Black Friday in-store madness is taking internet shopping to another level … and marketers are taking advantage.

The idea of big savings for consumers on Black Friday may be nothing more than a "myth," according to a firm that specializes in tracking price points on behalf of the retail industry. 360pi Corp. is an Ottawa startup that tracked and recorded the pricing of more than 8,000 items offered at mainstream U.S. retailers between Nov. 15 and Dec. 2, a period that included last week's Black Friday sales. What the firm found was that not only are prices not competitive with those online, in some cases retailers raised average prices in anticipation of Black Friday shopping mobs.

Aggressive discounts on clothes and toys lured slightly more consumers into stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year, but budget-conscious shoppers spent less. Total spending from Thursday through Sunday fell 3 percent from a year earlier to $57.4 billion, with shoppers spending an average of $407.02, down 4 percent from $423.55 a year earlier, according to the National Retail Federation. The retail trade group said the number of people who went shopping over the four-day weekend that kicked off with Thanksgiving rose slightly to 141 million, up from 139 million last year.