At the end of the third quarter 2018, price conscious Walmart began to phase in over 125 luxury brands. You heard right, luxury brands sold at Walmart. While other industry giants such as Toys R Us and Sears folded or shuttered storefronts, Walmart has chosen a very unlikely path to find its way out of the economic quagmire. The chain, known for its low-priced merchandise and lower income clientele, has partnered with Lord and Taylor, a longtime luxury retailer. While each side of this relationship must be regarding the other with suspicion if not hostility, their individual survival might well depend on the reputation held by one another. Walmart is hoping to attract the well-heeled, while Lord and Taylor is seeking new customers for some of its more affordable upscale labels. After all, there is said to be strength in numbers, why not mix up the demographics as well?

Whether this shakey union will succeed long-term is unknown at this point. Upon closer examination, however, it is just crazy enough to work. What is the magic component? As always, compromise. Luxury retailers are losing foot traffic and their demographic, consumers over 55, may not be online shoppers. Also, as their target audience ages, there is less need for evening wear, gold, silver, and precious stone jewelry, and seasonal wardrobing. For retirees who become winter snowbirds, there is little need for warm outerwear. L&T wants to lure more middle-class shoppers to its website and brick and mortars. While their purchases per item may not be high, they still require year-round clothing and that prompts continuous online purchases, brings shoppers into stores, and makes cash registers ring.

Both Walmart and Lord & Taylor are having one hell of a year. In January, Walmart announced massive store closings and layoffs across the country, including at its warehouse, Sam’s Club. In October 2018, it was Lord & Taylor’s turn to eat humble pie. Up to 10 of its store nationwide will close by end of year. The kicker here is that these store closures include L & T’s fabled flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. A Manhattan landmark for over 100 years, many insiders knew the chain was in trouble, but almost no one expected this. For both retailers who cater to consumers at opposite ends of the economic spectrum store closures generally precede filing for Chapter 11 protection.

To avoid bankruptcy and to turn this perilous situation around, decisive action had to be taken. But no one expected the white horse to be a retailer known for its starchy, nose-in-the-air-attitude, Lord & Taylor’s, nor the retailer founded in 1962 by a country hayseed. As for Walmart, Sam Walton might just approve their joint approach. While not a single Walmart standard has been sacrificed, nor a popular product discontinued, the inclusion of ‘something better’ will likely attract a new audience. Depending on how these new buyers rate their shopping experience will determine if they will become repeat customers.

The first stage has been to slowly introduce men’s women’s and kids’ clothing as well as footwear, accessories, and jewelry on Walmart’s website only- just in time for Christmas. Also, as if their quality alone was not enough of a differentiator, all 125 brands will appear under a separate category banner labelled, “Premium Brands” from Lord & Taylor”. Should these items sell briskly, the next step is to introduce some of the top sellers in select Walmart stores across the U.S. Each product description bears the legend, “sold and shipped by Lord & Taylor’s”. As you might expect, Lord and Taylor will receive a portion of each sale made on Walmart’s turf- online and down the road, in-store.
How Will This Alliance Work?

In case you were wondering, no Walmart merchandise will be sold either on the tony retailer’s website nor in any of its stores. While perhaps a small percentage will turn to this high-end retailers’ eponymous website or brick and mortars for special occasion clothing and better quality footwear, that is not the goal. The hope is that many existing Walmart stalwarts will make purchases from L & T’s exclusive category online, so that this category can be further expanded, and that both retailers will reap the rewards.

It is a simple enough theory that dates back centuries. The working classes are said to wonder how the other half (in this case the 1%) lives. By bringing carefully chosen brands such as L & T’s house brand, Vince Camuto, Lucky, Karl Lagerfeld, Democracy, Ivanka Trump, Calvin Klein, Miss Selfridge, Timberland, Brooks Brothers, and others not generally associated with Walmart, the brand is elevated without displacing its existing demographic. While it is not likely that stretch limos and Maserati will share Walmart’s parking lot with late model Hyundais and Ford Escapes, it is very likely that more affluent shoppers will visit the Walmart website and buy from other departments which include groceries, housewares, pet supplies, automotive, cosmetics and nutraceuticals, and even home decor.

Remember, the U.S. economy is not yet back to the level achieved in 2007. How affluence is defined differs now. Even for those who did not have to strictly budget their spending habits, nationwide and with an uncertain future, every household practices some degree of belt-tightening. For example, some households with incomes over $150K annually, now lease their luxury cars rather than buy them as they had previously. For many of us, online shopping has become a daily obsession, and hunting for the best prices is a new indoor sport.

As stated above, it is too soon to tell if this new alliance will succeed. For Black Friday, it was noted, that both Walmart and the Premium brands offered promotional pricing. Premium brands continued for the duration of the week that followed, hoping to influence shoppers’ buying decisions. If this scheme actually works, it could lead to some interesting pairings among retailers. If not, it was a chance, a financial risk well worth taking.

The post What is Going On at Walmart? appeared first on Koshka.

Email Promotions

Leveraging your email lists is a great way to increase sales and promote customer loyalty. It’s very important to segment your contact lists, especially for holiday promotions. This will help you position your promotions to different audiences, enabling your messaging to be much more personal. The more personal your message is, the more likely your promotions will resonate with your publics.

For example, your contacts that subscribed from your website might be different than the customers that subscribe in-store in many ways. People that visit your brick-and-mortar store are local customers that wouldn’t find as much value in something like free shipping, but might prefer an extra 10% off from all in-store purchases.

Search Engines

Search engines are one of the greatest resources you can have for a holiday promotion. Why is that? Because everyone is always looking for a deal and they won’t have a problem taking an extra couple of steps to find them. The job of the search engine marketer is to make this process as easy as possible.

Focus on ranking for keywords with search terms like “promotion”, “sale”, or “deal” to be better found by people looking for great holiday bargains. You want to work these keywords in with whichever specific holiday you are promoting. For example, promoting personalized family Christmas ornaments“>personalized family Christmas ornaments can vary from season-to-season.

PPC Advertising Campaigns

You can bid on the same keywords you are looking to rank for on Google AdWords. While you may not get quite as much traffic, you can leverage quality traffic in a high-volume search time. These are good alternatives to search engine optimization because these campaigns can be turned around much quicker.

Thinking about a last-minute campaign? Say you’re planning an event for some Halloween fun and you need to get the word out fast to the right people. PPC Advertising is the right avenue for you!

In addition to keyword research, you can target consumers based on their interests to better predict some of their purchasing habits. Ads Manager is a great method for targeting via interests and purchasing habits on Facebook, Instagram and their affiliate sites and apps. You can also take advantage of affinity categories, such as “Engaged Shoppers”, “Luxury Shoppers”, and others.

Looking to target past website visitors? Want to focus on people who have abandoned shopping carts? Remarketing campaigns are for you!

Social Media Campaigns

Holidays are about more than a good sale, it’s also an experience and culture to promote interest in purchasing a new product. Tying in a single hashtag across all social platforms helps perpetuate a cohesive message to amplify reach and remind potential customers of your limited promotions. Social media campaigns also enable people to discuss their holiday plans on an open forum, which lets them share news about your company, whether you’re an e-commerce site or non for profit organization.

Run photo contests to get people engaged with your brand and products. Having them share your products will not only increase the initial reach of your campaign but will promote trust through your consumers. Offering small incentives are great ways to increase participation!

Here are some of the best incentives that you can use for all of your campaigns!

Promote Holiday Coupon Codes

Coupon codes provide a serious incentive for consumers to make a purchase. They also remind customers of the event and encourage them to share the codes with their friends. For example, offering a 20% discount with the coupon code “Freedom” is a great way to position your brand with a fourth of July sale.

Holiday Gift Guide

It’s important to present your merchandise as relevant gifts to the holiday you are leveraging. Gift guides provide an easy way for potential customers to find your products positioned as gifts for specific holidays. This also helps you place many of your products in one convenient place for maximum reach. Do you remember the old toy store catalogs and how much excitement they brought as kids? You can recreate this feeling for new customers!

Here’s what it comes down to – people not only want deals, but they want ideas for gifts! The easier you can make that process for them, the better and more likely they will be to convert into a sale.

Free Shipping

An added incentive can make or break a conversion, and free shipping is one of the best ones! People shopping for either themselves or others can buy more for less when they know they won’t have to deal with shipping. This is actually a method for not just encouraging sales from new customers, but increase revenue per purchase.

Gift Card Deals

Like free shipping, offering a complimentary gift card can really increase impulse purchases. Even better, customers might be inclined to use their gift cards from where they get them. They can simply find a few items they might want at another time and return for more shopping. This is where gift cards can increase repeat sales and maximize revenue.

Mobile Campaigns

This goes along with your search engine promotions, Geotargeting is a great method for raising awareness and driving traffic to your brick-and-mortar store. You can target ads to go off when people come within a certain radius of your store, which can prompt more customer visits.

Wrap Up

How are you going to promote your business for the next big holiday? It’s recommended to use at least 2 of the above strategies to leverage holidays for the best results. Whether you have an e-commerce site or a brick-and-mortar store, try to plan your holiday campaigns in advanced. So what are you waiting for? Let’s get the ball rolling and make your next holiday one to remember for your business!

The post 9 Ways to Leverage Holidays for Marketing appeared first on Koshka.