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 Holiday Marketing

Marketers see CRM as the holiday gift that will keep on giving

Alex Palmer January 01, 2012

Even though holiday sales numbers grab the headlines, many marketers see the shopping season as just the beginning of their relationship with a customer. Using the influx of first-time buyers as an opportunity to expand their databases and better understand consumer behavior, marketers are finding that effective CRM strategies can make it feel like Christmas all year long.
 

Brands step up free shipping game for holiday season e-commerce

Mercedes Cardona December 01, 2011

This holiday shopping season could finally make free shipping the norm among multichannel retailers — and free returns could be next.
 

O come, all ye shoppers!

Scott Donaton, CEO, Ensemble December 01, 2011

Be my Valentine! Now, let's see what I can buy/purchase/consume to 
express how I feel. A greeting card, for starters, pre-printed with someone else's sentiments, a frilly box of chocolates complete with a picture chart so you can avoid biting into the one with that weird green cream, or a dozen red long-stems.
 

Delivered: Holiday catalogs

December 01, 2011

What's in our mailbox this month: Holiday catalogs
 

Study: Most retailers email inactive subscribers

November 17, 2011

A majority of retailers continue to email subscribers who have been inactive for more than 40 months, according to a study released by email service provider Responsys on Nov. 17.
 

Digital media empowers shoppers this holiday season, survey says

November 03, 2011

Santa is going social, and mobile appears to be king when it comes to shopping this holiday season, according to a study conducted Oct. 11-14 by Shopper Sciences, a marketing consultancy unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies' Mediabrands.
 

Retailers roll out holiday 
multichannel offers early

Mercedes Cardona November 01, 2011

Facing a fourth holiday of economic uncertainty, merchants this year will attempt to repeat the success they had attracting shoppers in 2010. Experts predict an onslaught of coupons, free shipping and multichannel efforts to draw in recession-weary consumers.
 

Toys 'R' Us to launch integrated holiday campaign

October 28, 2011

Toys "R" Us will launch its integrated 2011 holiday advertising campaign on Oct. 30., featuring direct mail, email, social media and TV elements.
 

Bring on the holidays! It's time to make your holiday mobile strategy ring the registers

Bryon Morrison, president of wireless practice, The Marketing Arm October 16, 2011

The holiday shopping season is almost here and strategies incorporating mobile marketing can expand your database, reaffirm customer loyalty and usher in new multichannel techniques to make the most of this holiday season.
 

Q&A: Teresa Jeffry, retail industry practice head, AOL

August 27, 2011

Teresa Jeffry, who heads AOL's retail industry practice, discusses how retailers are plotting their holiday display advertising campaigns.
 

Email marketers expect 2011 holiday season to top last year

July 26, 2011

With this year's email click and open rates outperforming 2010's numbers by 23% and 11%, respectively, marketers should prepare for a stronger holiday season than last year.
 

Mother's Day email open rates peak post-holiday: survey

May 03, 2011

Emails with "Mother's Day" in the subject line generate a 2.6% click-through rate in the week following Mother's Day versus 1.8% during the week leading up to holiday, a 44% increase, according to email marketing firm Experian CheetahMail.
 

Hooked on discounts

Mercedes Cardona February 01, 2011

Online retailers drove a holiday season of aggressive discounts that may be ingraining a culture of 24/7 bargain hunting among their customers.
 

Online holiday spending up 12%, will eclipse last year

December 23, 2010

Online consumer holiday spending increased 12% compared with last year to $28.4 billion, according to digital business analytics firm comScore which measured spending up to December 22. It will hit $35 billion at its current pace, easily topping last year's total of $29.1 billion.
 

Buy.com launches shopping app for iPhone

December 20, 2010

Online retailer Buy.com launched an app for Apple's iPhone and iPod mobile devices on December 20. The app uses barcode and voice-recognition technology to help shoppers compare bricks-and-mortar store pricing.
 

Honda busts into holiday marketing with Facebook NaughtyorNice app

December 10, 2010

The holiday season makes every marketer see dollar signs, but breaking through the clutter of competitors' marketing messages isn't easy. Luckily, the holiday season also offers a little more flexibility in terms of creative boundaries.
 

Report: Retail ads perform worse than most other online ads

December 08, 2010

A new study by Dynamic Logic offers several tips for retail marketers on how to deliver effective holiday ads.
 

Catalogers push free holiday shipping

Alex Palmer December 01, 2010

This may be remembered as the season of free shipping. Many catalogers are offering free delivery, often with no minimum-spending limit, to get the attention of holiday shoppers.
 

Toys 'R' Us adds mobile components to holiday campaign

November 10, 2010

Toys "R" Us' holiday campaign is in full swing two weeks before Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. This week, the retailer introduced mobile coupons that shoppers can receive by text message or e-mail.
 

Make Cyber Monday successful, not scary

Ji Kim, CEO at DiJiPop October 25, 2010

For the consumer, shopping is all about deals. Every year leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, brands and retailers push deals to capitalize on the shopping season and gain traffic and buyers to their websites.
 

Profit up at Amazon.com

October 22, 2010

The big e-commerce headline this week was the 16% profit gain at Amazon.com during the third quarter. Sales were up at Amazon but a number of analysts also fretted over increasing operating expenses.
 

Digital gift cards get the short stick

September 24, 2010

A new report finds that on the eve of the 2010 holiday shopping season, a number of marketers are neglecting the digital version of that now age-old gifting icon: the gift card.
 

Preparing for the big holiday game

Michael Haydock, retail analytics leader, IBM Global Business Services August 09, 2010

During August, marketing chiefs at major retailers are like athletes before the big game. They know what's on the line. The decisions they make about how and where to allocate the holiday season marketing budget will likely spell the difference between victory and defeat for the entire year. And it's a long time until next season.
 

Holidays spotlight e-commerce

January 04, 2010

The holiday shopping season is over, but many retailers are still celebrating based on the positive performance of e-commerce. From November 1 to December 24, online sales rose 15.5% year-over-year.
 

Search sites increase use of bargains, mobile this holiday shopping season

December 14, 2009

To take advantage of consumers' desire for bargains this holiday season, search-focused sites are beefing up their price-comparison engines with enhancements such as better images, more reviews and easier-to-find coupons. TheFind.com has debuted a search format that helps consumers more quickly find coupons, while Ask.com has launched a coupon deals feature. Google Product Search, meanwhile, has updated its capabilities.
 

Observations in Retail - Holiday Edition

Pat Duncan, associate partner in Rosetta’s Consumer Products & Retail vertical December 09, 2009

Several retailers have shown that they aren't going to let these tough economic times affect their creativity or dampen their results. Here some observations about the holiday selling season thus far that offer valuable lessons for retailers:
 

Target's holiday promotions focus on mobile

December 07, 2009

Target has launched a slew of holiday promotions and tools for the season. The retail giant now has new and revamped mobile and social offerings and a sweepstakes.
 

Cyber Monday, Black Friday e-mail volume up, deliverability down

December 03, 2009

The volume of e-mail marketing messages sent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday hit an all-time high this year. However, according to e-mail vendor Pivotal Veracity, message deliverability was an issue for marketers.
 

Cyber Monday 2009 sales up 5% over last year

December 02, 2009

Consumers spent $887 million online on November 30, up 5% from 2008's Cyber Monday and matching the heaviest online spending day on record, December 9, 2008, according to comScore. Consumers spent $887 million online on November 30, up 5% from 2008's Cyber Monday and matching the heaviest online spending day on record, December 9, 2008, according to comScore.
 

Overstock.com launches "25 Days, 25 Deals" promotion

December 02, 2009

Overstock.com launched its "25 Days, 25 Deals" holiday promotion this week. Each day from December 1 to Christmas, the site will post a new sale in an effort to retain existing customers and attract new ones.