Industry Eye: Prospecting - The Container Store, Talbots, Crazy 8
Mobile Discounts Drive Retail Traffic for Container Store
Storage products retailer The Container Store began offering discounts for the first time in April. The move coincided with the retailer’s mobile marketing launch. Working with mobile couponing provider Yowza!!, The Container Store, which also sells online and through catalogs, uses mobile coupons to lure consumers into its 47 stores. The marketer’s spokesperson Audrey Robertson estimates that prospects represent 20 percent of all transactions matched back to its mobile coupons.
Average order values for mobile transactions are nearly 2.5 times greater than the company’s regular average order value.
Not targeted to a specific demographic, the mobile coupons are available to all iPhone users. Container Store employees scan the barcode straight from the phone’s screen. While the brand’s primary demographic — upscale professional women in their mid 30s to 50s — has been receptive to mobile, the channel also has attracted new customers.
The effort also targets recent college grads. “They’ve got iPhones,” Robertson says, “and they’re discovering The Container Store through this.” —Joe Keenan
Talbots’ Fall Catalog Back to Prospecting
A rough fiscal second quarter that saw Talbots’ sales plummet by 23 percent to $305 million ended Aug. 1. The conservative women’s apparel retailer sought to restart this fall with several prospecting initiatives.
Although the company cut catalog circulation by 25 percent during the quarter, as well as its third quarter ending Nov. 1, President/CEO Trudy Sullivan said during a recent earnings call with analysts, “We’re looking to broaden our reach beyond our core customer and reactivate [those] customers … we’re prospecting.”
Talbots eliminated unproductive catalogs last year and is focusing prospecting efforts on its 12-month to 18-month buyer file. Last year it went as deep as its 24-month file. “The result in the 12- to 18-month [file] was two times better than the deeper file,” Sullivan said, “so we have prioritized our spend there.”
Joe Keenan is the executive editor of Total Retail. Joe has more than 10 years experience covering the retail industry, and enjoys profiling innovative companies and people in the space.
Melissa Campanelli is Editor-in-Chief of Total Retail. She is an industry veteran, having covered all aspects of retail, tech, digital, e-commerce, and marketing over the past 20 years. Melissa is also the co-founder of the Women in Retail Leadership Circle.
