Amazon Style, an IRL clothing store, will open in Los Angeles later this year. The 30,000-square-foot retail establishment, located in Glendale’s upscale Americana at Brand open-air mall, will feature high-tech dressing rooms from which shoppers can electronically summon items as Amazon attempts to address the “pressure points” of traditional clothes shopping. Amazon has been experimenting with physical retail since 2015 when it opened a bookstore in Seattle. In 2017 it purchased the Whole Foods grocery chain for $13.7 billion, and has since then experimented with various formats, including “grab-and-go” convenience stores. Continue reading Amazon Style Retail Clothing Store to Launch in Los Angeles

Last month, Amazon earmarked $800 million to guarantee one-day delivery for its Prime members. That’s another blow for U.S. department stores struggling to find ways to retain their customers against the Amazon onslaught. One important way they’ve done this is to focus on loyalty programs. According to market intelligence company Beroe, the U.S. loyalty program sector was worth between $27 billion and $55 billion in 2018 and is expected to continue to grow by 2 percent to 4 percent between then and 2020. Continue reading Retailers Push Loyalty Programs to Compete with Amazon

Although Nielsen already offers tools to help track when consumers buy products in-store after seeing online ads, the measurements company has inked an agreement with Foursquare to create an improved product. Location data company Foursquare will offer information which, combined with Nielsen’s marketing tools, will offer a more complete picture of consumer activity. The new capabilities will come at a price. Nielsen digital measurement clients will be required to buy into the version with Foursquare data included. Continue reading Nielsen and Foursquare Ink Partnership for In-Store Visit Info

In May, Instagram designers, engineers and product managers brainstormed ideas on how to make shopping work in the app. Now, six months later, they’re introducing the winning idea: Brands can tag products in their photos, much the way users tag friends. A single tap will reveal more information about the product, and another tap will send you to the retailer’s site to buy the product. After the launch, Instagram will gather data from how consumers use the new feature to improve it. Continue reading Instagram Introduces a Test Version of E-Commerce Feature

Pinterest users typically use the service for ideas, suggesting that they may be receptive to advertising and branding. In contrast, Google and Amazon users may already have chosen what they wish to purchase and use the sites for price comparisons. The number of Pinterest users continues to rise, and the service is positioned to become a money-making ad platform, gaining more attention from venture capitalists and retail companies. Continue reading Pinterest Service Positioned to Become Advertising Platform