Prospecting

The New York Times reported earlier this month that Groupon's business model is in some question as the daily-deal site prepares to go public. What we found is that Groupon and LivingSocial do bring in new customers, which should be welcome news to both retailers and daily-deal companies alike.

For a startup business, the value of an appearance or mention on a national morning show like "Today" is priceless. The free publicity and exposure a brand is provided can translate into immediate — and substantial — sales gains. Such was the good fortune for Tablevogue, a cross-channel retailer of stylish slipcovers for folding tables commonly used when entertaining (e.g., birthday and holiday parties, business events).

When Emily McNish shopped for jewelry online, she was overwhelmed by the options while searching for “gold necklace” on e-commerce sites or Google. Then she found a website called JewelMint that she lets shop for her.

Iconic cross-channel retailer Macy's launched a multimarket advertising takeover of online transit guide HopStop.com to bring excitement and visitors to its annual spring flower show. Macy's was attracted to HopStop.com because it believed its large, urban consumer base (4 million monthly consumers and tourists) and geo-ad targeting capabilities in major metropolitan markets would drive visitors to the events, which took place March 27 through April 10 at Macy's stores in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Jessica London, a cross-channel retailer of apparel for plus-size women in the Redcats USA OneStopPlus.com division, launched a fashion blog in late January called PlusSizesDresses.com. Created to engage and interact with curvy women who love fashion and are looking for dresses that "fit and flatter" their figures, the blog offers fashion tips and insight on all things related to plus-size dresses in a fun and engaging manner.

Every retailer understands that direct mail can't do it all. Any campaign needs the other channels to work together, to some extent — and ideally on the same page. While the closely coordinated direct mail and email campaigns are both popular and successful today, perhaps the most effective demonstration of the offline-online marriage are personalized URL (PURL) campaigns.

In an effort to optimize its mar-
keting efforts for one of the busiest days of its year, Valentine's Day, Godiva went straight to the source for help: it tapped into its 600-member private online community, Godiva Chocolate Talk. The cross-channel retailer of gourmet chocolates and candies has partnered with Communispace, a provider of online consumer insights communities for market research, to host the online community.

A made-up holiday called "Shop from Work Week" helped Better World Books, a cross-channel retailer that collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide, increase its customer acquistion rate.

So-called "augmented reality" is the overlaying of digital information onto the real world, and everyone from game designers to retailers to health care companies to estate agents are gearing up to use it. While the potential for such technology to change the world is vast, the biggest challenge for its backers will be to convert this virtual revolution into rock-solid profits. Fortunately, there are countless ways this can be achieved, but not all are immediately obvious.

Home Depot has long been known as the no-frills bastion of tools, lumber and other products that appeal to the tool belt-wearing set. Now, it's going for the softer side hoping to attract more women who are into things like redecorating. It's even recruited none other than Martha Stewart to help with the effort.