Paper Coupons are a Thing of the Past

This post on retailwire highlights how J.C. Penney is rolling out a mobile coupon campaign in Houston in which consumers are allowed to download discounts to their cell phones, and then it can be scanned by a special reader at checkout. Is this the direction that coupons are headed in?

Mike Boylson, CMO for J.C. Penney mentioned:

"We've always made it easy for our customers to save money. These mobile coupons are the ultimate in customer convenience, because there's no need to clip or carry around a printed coupon, and they can be instantly scanned from a cell phone. It's another way we're innovating to enhance the customer's shopping experience."

J.C. Penney will try to rollout this digital coupon campaign to over 1,100 stores nationwide wide if it is successful. A NY Times report also noted that digital coupon usage is up 25% in the first half of this year versus last year. We should definitely be on the lookout for more and more companies adopting this in the future.

Walmart's Brand Showcases increase user time on website

In a recent article at RetailWire, they look at Walmart has added content and banners to the website to increase brand exposure. This initiative has increased the time spent on the Walmart webpage 68%. Interactive tools such as Kellogg's breakfast calculator and Zyrtec's pollen calculator have proven to be tools that work in these instances. Another part of the Walmart website that has proven to be especially successful is the sampling campaigns. Read the full story on what WalMart is doing here.

American Malls will Survive

This post on RetailWire discusses how even though many people believe that the American mall is heading nowhere quick, chances are that they will survive, as the strong "get stronger."

David Simon, the chairman and chief executive of Simon Property Group, believes that malls will change in order to cope with the times. People are stepping into less and less stores inside malls now, and because of this malls will have to change their communication to customers to lure them into more stores. Simon also leaves with this notion, "seven of the top 10 tenants we had when we went public are no longer in business today, and yet we've been able to continue to grow our business because it's the real estate that retains the value over the long term." Interesting thoughts...