Fifty cents could have been really special

by Sharon Goldman — Senior Director, COLLOQUY

One of the trickiest parts of building loyalty is making sure that your front-line employees are empowered to make customers feel special. After all, you…

Abercrombie & Fitch: Sex Obviously Doesn't Sell

by Bob Phibbs — CEO, The Retail Doctor

If “sex sells” then why have they lost so many of their customers? Sure their Manhattan store sells $100 million a year to gawker tourists, but how about the…

Viewpoints launches post-purchase email service

June 28, 2010

Viewpoints Network, a social technology and media company, has announced the launch of its new Post-Purchase Email Service for the Viewpoints Technology…

EZface gives customers 'virtual hair coloration'

June 27, 2010

EZface, a provider of virtual makeover technology, has introduced its EZface Virtual Hair Coloration in-store kiosk. According to the company, the application…

Pricing and Policy Decisions

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

BI-LO launches customer health and wellness initiative

June 22, 2010

South Carolina-based supermarket chain BI-LO has launched a new health and wellness initiative called BI-LO thrive!, which includes a full-time registered…

SocialConnect weaves together brand experience, the social web

June 22, 2010

Bazaarvoice, a provider of hosted social commerce applications, has announced the SocialConnect suite to help brands safely and effectively leverage the power…

Opinion: Do not give in to 'dumb discounting'

Cutting prices can be a useful tool with core customers, but will just as often backfire on a retailer.

Retail loyalty’s big leap

by Sharon Goldman — Senior Director, COLLOQUY

My former DMNews colleague, Nathan Golia, wrote a great piece about the growth of retail loyalty programs in a past issue — which I must say, if I can toot…

Are You Driving Your Customers Away?

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

One of my favorite vendors... ...is pushing me away. I’ve had my cellphone with the same provider for close to six years.  Yes, I was late in adopting the…

Finding retail marketing insight from within your database

Extracting business insight from raw data is possible through the establishment of a sound analytics process.

Toys R Us unveils prepaid shopping card as layaway alternative

June 15, 2010

Recent financial hard times have led to resurgence in the use of layaway at retail, but Toys R Us is taking the concept one step further. According to a press…

Target executive to talk interactive multichannel at retail summit

June 15, 2010

Does Starbucks’ new free Wi-Fi offer really raise the loyalty bar?

by Sharon Goldman — Senior Director, COLLOQUY

No one who loves Starbucks doesn’t love the fact that they’re now offering free Wi-Fi in its over 6500 locations, right?  My question is: How much will this…

Flying Blind

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

Five reasons retailers should look to mobile video

With past technological barriers now down, mobile video is a fertile playground for retail marketers.

Why customers abandon shopping carts online

In 2009, 88 percent of U.S. online customers abandoned at least one shopping cart, 136 million people in total.

The Mayor of Starbucks, or just your average coffee addict

by Sharon Goldman — Senior Director, COLLOQUY

Drink a lot of Starbucks? Now you can become the “Mayor” of Starbucks in your town, thanks to the popular Foursquare application — and as a loyal customer…

Dollars and Sentiments. The Real R.O.I. on Social Marketing

by Doug Stephens — President, Retail Prophet Consulting

With the rush to social marketing, some companies are falling prey to a few common pitfalls that are ultimately derailing their success.  In this article…

Report: Affluent customers driving the retail recovery

Findings include an uptick in affluent consumer spending and optimism, and shifting online commerce expectations.