Macy's

Macy’s, already one of the country's largest advertisers, is looking to augment that spend with partnerships designed to lure more shoppers into its stores. Martine Reardon, evp, marketing at Macy’s, said the push is also part of the company’s strategy to differentiate itself. “It’s important for a brand to have a personality,” she said.

Macy’s has been serving up fashion advice via a series of “irreverent” celebrity-studded Web videos. The department store, which saw same store sales increase 3.7 percent in February, has tapped style gurus like Martha Stewart, Donald Trump, Clinton Kelly, and Rachel Roy to guide consumers through real life challenges — like what to wear when meeting your ex-boyfriend for coffee. The goal is to give consumers the confidence and style tips they need to “put it all together.” The effort stemmed from research that showed consumers wanted more than just “fashion advice from Macy’s.”

Two of the nation’s biggest department stores — Macy’s and Sears — are using social media to drive prom sales for the first time this year. Sears this month launched the “Ultimate Prom Experience,” a microsite dedicated to helping teens find the perfect dress. The site, accessible at Sears.com/prom, includes features such as a “Find out your prom [dress] personality” quiz, hair and make-up tips, a list of the 10 hottest trends, and a $1,000 sweepstakes. Quiz takers may also share and post the results on Facebook or Twitter. Macy’s, meanwhile, launched a “Prom 2010” tab on its Facebook fan page. (It currently has more than 377,600 fans.) The Cincinnati-based department store chain will post prom photos submitted by consumers on Facebook. It also has set up a Twitter hashtag, #prom2010, so consumers can tweet about in-store prom events. As part of a partnership with Teen Vogue, Macy’s is throwing “prom parties” at its stores through May. The retailer will give out offers for “VIP treatment” to the first 75 prom shoppers that text a special promotional code at select, in-store events, said Macy’s rep Orlando Veras.

The biggest snowstorm of the season to date is scheduled to arrive along major population centers on the East Coast on Sat. Dec. 19, the final Saturday before Christmas, also known as Super Saturday, which is traditionally one of the biggest shopping days of the year.
                   

With a most challenging holiday shopping season looming, one of the trickiest tightropes this year will be inventory planning and management. That's an ongoing catch-22 in good times or bad. But this year will be more challenging than most in recent memory. How much inventory will be enough? How much will be too much, leading to potential overstocks? How tight can you get without frustrating online or catalog shoppers 
with back orders, or store shoppers due to slim pickings on the racks?

An interview with Margaret Moraskie, vice president of e-commerce at the the women's apparel and accessories catalog/multichannel retailer Boston Proper.

Going “green” will become increasingly important for multichannel merchants as consumers’ spending habits continue to be influenced by environmental concerns. According to the 2007 Annual National Shopping Behavior Survey by KPMG, a vast majority of holiday shoppers expressed a willingness to pay more for ecofriendly gifts and took note of the countries where items were made. The recent survey of 815 shoppers was conducted randomly by telephone. Here are some highlights of the survey: * 88 percent of respondents said they were very concerned about the environment, with 74 percent saying they buy environmentally friendly products; * 60 percent of those respondents were willing

Did anybody else get an inferiority complex over the Thanksgiving weekend? I’m referring to the hoopla that surrounded Black Friday on Nov. 23. Like just about anything else in America, Black Friday gets bigger every year, and this year really went over the top. It got me thinking about the future: Does this “holiday” have to be a retail-only one? I certainly read enough about it. I saw plenty of TV news clips of those crazy, sleep-deprived shoppers lining up outside the stores in the wee hours of that Friday morning. I sifted through enough Circuit City, Kohl’s, Macy’s and Wal-Mart circulars about their

When general merchandise cataloger Fingerhut was re-formed in December 2002 after being liquidated earlier that year by former owner Federated Department Stores (now Macy’s), the company’s foundation was its legacy file of customers who were active with the company prior to its closing. Over time, however, as the company grew to more than $300 million in sales as of the end of 2006, Fingerhut had to replenish those names with new ones. Realizing its housefile would dry up fairly quickly, over the next few years Fingerhut actively prospected building predictive models off its legacy file. “Fingerhut had a wealth of information available on

According to STORES magazine’s inaugural Favorite 50 survey, conducted by BIGresearch, consumers are drawn most to Web sites that offer a variety of choices. Topping the publication’s rankings for customers’ favorite online retail companies was Amazon.com, whose broad product array connects with consumers. Following Amazon’s site was another site full of possibilities, eBay.com. The rest of the top 10 is below, followed by a list of all catalog companies ranked in the top 50. 3. WalMart.com 4. BestBuy.com 5. JCPenney.com 6. Target.com 7. Kohls.com 8. Overstock.com 9. Google.com 10. Sears.com The following catalogers were also on the list (followed by actual rank): LandsEnd.com (13),