Prospecting

Despite the surge in online advertising, most consumers still do the vast majority of their shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. According to PwC, nearly 40 percent of consumers make purchases inside a physical store every week, compared to 27 percent who do the same online. Unlike online audiences, that may or may not be shopping when…

What follows is a list of the Total Retail content in 2015 that generated the most reader comments. You’ll see that our readers are highly engaged when it comes to content on shipping rates — who isn’t when it has such an impact on your bottom line — social media marketing, payment options and cooperative…

In this fast-paced, interactive webinar, our expert panel will discuss 2015 successes and look forward at retail email trends for 2016.

Wal-Mart on Tuesday announced a series of initiatives to beef up its health and wellness offerings, at a time when low-price competitor Target also has the segment in its crosshairs. On Saturday, the world's largest retailer will host what it's dubbed "America's Biggest Health Fair," at which it will provide free glucose, blood pressure and vision…

At "Whole Paycheck," a cup of Joe now only costs a quarter. Without much fanfare, Whole Foods recently launched a special discount aimed at energizing customers — and sales, of course. The deal, valid through the end of September, offers 12-ounce cups of brewed coffee at Whole Foods for just 25 cents apiece. The price is…

Kmart has expanded its layaway program and dropped a required down payment on a lease-to-own plan, joining other U.S. retailers in trying to get a jump start on grabbing holiday shoppers. Kmart, a unit of Sears, started allowing customers to buy in installments with no down payment last week, an option it will offer every day…

Smart marketers know that a good, growing email list is gold. The size of the list needs to increase and evolve to sustain the widest reach possible, as does the quality of those email addresses, reaching the right people the right way with messages they value. Good lists are the foundation of email marketing —…

On a recent afternoon about three dozen members of the upper management team from Lowe's, the big-box home improvement chain, flew from their company headquarters in the suburbs of Charlotte, N.C. to Los Angeles. They climbed aboard a pleasantly air-conditioned charter bus. They weren’t in L.A. for the typical tour-bus stops; no movie-star mansions or…

Sam’s Club wants to move beyond its parent’s DNA. The warehouse-club retailer, owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., for years has struggled to turn around sluggish sales. Now it's pursuing a more fundamental fix: breaking away from the low-income consumers who shop at Wal-Mart.

Nordstrom Rack, the rapidly expanding off-price version of Nordstrom, is working exactly as the company hoped it would: it’s bringing in a boatload of new customers to the regular brand. One million Rack customers started shopping at the company’s full-line stores or at Nordstrom.com for the first time last year, said Blake Nordstrom, the company’s…