Interesting for two reasons: 1) as the article notes, it's great to see Luxury brands adopting online marketing strategies and tapping the potential of social influence marketing; and 2) here's a great way for a brand marketer to begin to quantify the impact of digital in terms of driving foot traffic to the makeup counter. It's a challenge many online marketers are wrestling with, looking to things like mobile couponing and other promotions to get at cross-channel measurement. This will be a big focus in 2010.

2009 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2008 Non-Travel (Retail) Spending Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore, Inc.
	Millions ($)
	2008	2009	Percent Change
November 1 – 27	$10,254	$10.570	3%
Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26)	$288	$318	10%
Black Friday (Nov. 27)	$534	$595	11%

There's been a lot of media coverage of the pricing wars between Amazon and Wal Mart this Holiday season. If this data from ComScore is any indication, that aggressive discounting seems to be paying off. It'll be interesting to see how the coming weeks shape up.

When it comes to consumer electronics, searches for smartphones rose 6% compared with last year; netbooks rose more than 60%; mini notebook computers, up more than 70%; and mini computers, up 40%.

Google data also shows that consumers are clearly continuing to hunt for deals, offers, coupons and sales. It's consistent with an interesting insight from eMarketer that colleague Joe Mele covered in his blog.

While deals may be what they're searching for, in a world where price comparison engines make it easy to find the best deal, retailers MUST focus on providing value beyond simply having the best price. Competitive pricing is table stakes. Now it's about a compelling and differentiated experience, both online and in brick 'n mortar stores.

Retailers need to encourage usage of mobile apps: Study

January 23, 2009

Shopping for an opinion

Great data here. I think the hidden insight here is that consumers are already doing things like price comparisons, checking reviews, etc. - even though NO ONE has really made that an easy, fast and elegant experience. There is a tremendous opportunity for retailers to solve that problem, make it simple, and OWN hearts and minds as a result. The consumer demand is clear.

Disney’s Retail Plan Is a Theme Park in Its Stores

LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Company, with the help of Steven P. Jobs and his retailing team at Apple, intends to drastically overhaul its approach to the shopping mall.

 

Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide, leading a tour, says, “It’s time to take risks.”

 

More and more retailers are recognizing that shopping behaviors have fundamentally changed and that consumers want more than rows and rows of product. It's the experience that ultimately drives engagement and has the power to transform a retail space into something more than a simple transaction.

The article notes that Apple has mastered this in many ways. Kudos to Disney for taking the risk.

What other retailers are making this leap? Who's doing it well? Who's not?

At the 'experience store,' a new concept in retailing, loitering is the right idea

This is an oldie, but it's a good piece on reinventing retail space to focus on the experience and theater of shopping, rather than on rows and rows of merchandise and price tags. Focus is on the Samsung Experience Store in Manhattan, but also touches on the concept throughout history, including big department stores' take on the idea decades ago. Via @chi_media_guy.

Clearly, there's a hybrid opportunity here - how do you marry a big box store with an experience store? Who, if anyone, is already doing it well?

According to Scarborough Research, 8.6 million (or 8 percent) of U.S. households currently acquire coupons via text messages and/or email.

Sunday newspapers are still the most popular way households obtain coupons at 51 percent, followed by in-store coupons (35 percent), mail (31 percent), loyalty card programs (21 percent), in-store circulars (20 percent), weekday newspapers (17 percent), product packages (16 percent), magazines (15 percent) and Internet sites (7 percent).