Kohl’s rolls out first mobile effort to push holiday deals and sales

Kohl’s multichannel holiday campaign focuses on all of the special offers the department store chain offers consumers, with mobile at the heart of it.

The campaign focuses on how shoppers can save on products at their convenience. The multichannel campaign will be communicated across multiple mediums, including print advertising, direct mail, email, digital, mobile and social media.

“Mobile offers retailers another powerful channel to drive sales during the holiday season,” said Nick Taylor, president of Usablenet, New York.

“With the surge in smartphone adoption this year, retailers should capitalize on this opportunity by extending holiday items and sales to mobile,” he said. “Non-optimized retail sites run the risk of losing business during the most critical quarter.”

Mr. Taylor, whose company develops mobile commerce sites, did not work with Kohl’s on the holiday campaign. He is simply a third-party source based on his expertise with mobile retail sites.

Kohl's did not respond by deadline.

Kohl’s is a family-focused specialty department store chain offering moderately priced, exclusive and national brand apparel, shoes, accessories, beauty and home products.

Kohl’s mobile
The company saw an increasing amount of consumers accessing its Web site via their smartphones and created a mobile-optimized site.

Consumers can now shop the store’s merchandise via the site, as well as read customer reviews and view ratings for items.

Additionally, consumers can view shipping deals, find the closest store, browse that day’s ad, contact customer service, view their account and their My Kohl’s Charge history.

The company expects Kohls.com sales to increase by more than 40 percent for 2010 as the site continues to be a go-to resource for shoppers.

Kohls.com offers merchandise and savings available in-store, plus thousands of online exclusives, which are now available on the mobile device as well.

Merchandising for the mobile site focused on increasing awareness of "only-at-Kohl’s" brands through holiday insights from Simply Vera Vera Wang, LC Lauren Conrad, Dana Buchman and Bobby Flay.

Recognizing that consumers are increasingly using smartphones for improved convenience and efficiency, Kohl's has made significant investments in new mobile tools designed to make shopping easier for consumers.

The popular list builder tool will once again be available on Kohls.com and on the mobile version of the site during the days leading up to Thanksgiving as an additional resource to help shoppers conveniently plan their in-store visits and preview hundreds of Early Bird offers.

A screengrab of the Kohl's mobile site

Kohl’s charge card and direct mail
Kohl’s has increased its direct mail investment and distribution.

Throughout November and December, Kohl’s Charge card customers will enjoy more days to save than last year.

Pick-Your-Day savings offers and shopping passes allow shoppers to save multiple times during key sales events. This holiday season, Kohl’s will also include an additional shopping pass with each Pick-Your-Day offer.

Kohl’s will once again distribute a bundled holiday gift guide and jewelry mailer to select Kohl’s Charge card holders, including additional ways to save.

New this year, Kohl’s will also distribute a December guide with more than 30 pages of gift ideas.

Email alerts
Kohl’s database of shopper emails continues to grow as customers look to stay updated on brands and savings opportunities.

Emails beginning the second week of November will feature offers, gifts and apparel available in-store and online, including exclusive offers available only at Kohls.com.

Kohl’s will segment emails according to customer needs, lifestyle and preference.

Recipients can link to Kohl’s Facebook page directly from their emails to share their deals.

Digital and social media
Kohl’s will increase its investment in its digital marketing strategy, leveraging social media and online advertising.

This investment reflects the continuing trend of consumers researching purchases and sharing information online.

The company has seen substantial growth of its Facebook fan base, which has more than doubled since 2009 and now exceeds 2.8 million.

As a result, Kohl’s will continue to increase interaction on the site, making it easier for customers to shop and share their experiences.

The company will promote an ongoing dialogue about Kohl’s brands, programs and gifts, increase online polling functionality and offer integrated seasonal messaging via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

In addition, Kohl’s will seed merchandise giveaways with consumer bloggers.

Homepage takeovers are also a component of Kohl’s holiday digital advertising strategy.

The high-impact placements provide increased interaction with customers, promoting increased brand exposure.

Throughout November and December, Kohl’s will promote sales events with nine homepage takeovers on popular sites such as AOL and Yahoo.

This year, Kohl’s will also have a presence on Oprah.com to seed messaging prior to the Jan. 1, 2011 launch of the Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, and an expanded paid advertising presence on Facebook.

Television and radio
Kohl’s will continue to leverage national and regional broadcast advertisements to engage customers and highlight why Kohl’s is the smartest choice this holiday season.

Broadcast spots will feature shoppers sharing how they gifted at Kohl’s by using savings tools and policies such as Kohl’s Cash, Kohl’s Charge card and Kohl's return policy.

Beginning after Thanksgiving, two 30-second national brand TV spots will run throughout the holiday season during such shows as Dancing with the Stars, Grey’s Anatomy, CSI, Survivor and Modern Family.

A mix of 15 - and 30-second TV advertising spots will support Kohl’s key sales events and highlight the company’s savings tools and differentiators.

The company continues to take advantage of radio’s strong reach with various 30-second national radio spots debuting on Nov. 2 and running through the week.

Kohl’s will once again use DJ integration throughout the holiday season with radio personalities Ryan Seacrest, Billy Bush, John Tesh and Lia.

“Customers often prefer alternative methods to browse and purchase gifts, especially this time of year,” Usablenet's Mr. Taylor said. “Mobile allows customers to avoid the crowds and engage with brands in the most accessible and convenient way.”

Visit us at www.themobilexperience.com

Kenneth Cole exec: Apps do not make sense for brand retailers - Mobile Commerce Daily

NEW YORK – During his keynote at the Mobile Shopping Summit, a Kenneth Cole executive said that, especially with the rise of HTML5, his company’s focus is on the mobile Web and that an application does not make sense for a brand retailer’s business.

The Kenneth Cole presentation offered a look at what the marketplace is doing in terms of mobile, with a focus on the current design trends in mobile space. The differences in mobile site design tend to correspond to particular categories—mass merchants, look-up sites and brand retailers.

“Looking at the mobile sites of mass merchants, look-up sites and brand retailers, they are all using different design templates and tactics to get their message across,” said Tom Davis, vice president of ecommerce at Kenneth Cole Productions, New York. “This year we put our toe in the water, but we expect [sales driven via] mobile devices to be bigger than some of our bricks-and-mortar stores.

“The technology is about to change with the introduction of HTML5, and as a brand retailer, it’s all about the mobile Web site,” he said. “An app really doesn’t make sense for my business.”

Mobile commerce boom via the mobile Web
Before the brand launched its mobile-optimized Web site, it was seeing about 1 percent of its business coming through mobile devices.

Kenneth Cole tapped Usablenet for the launch of its mobile-optimized site at end of July. Mobile traffic immediately surged to 4 percent of the brand’s total, and that was during the summer, traditionally the slowest time of year for the brand.

Currently, mobile accounts for 10 percent of its total Web traffic and 4 percent of its revenue, although Mr. Davis believes that those figures only represent the tip of the iceberg.

“We’re expecting an incredible spike in mobile traffic and sales during the holidays,” Mr. Davis said. “For X amount of money I can build this mobile commerce business, man it with one or two people, and it will drive more revenue than an entire standalone store.

“It is the easiest business case scenario today, but what I really get excited about is what’s coming tomorrow,” he said.

Mr. Davis shared three main takeaways related to the mobile space:

1. By 2013 more mobile phones will be shipped than desktops and laptops combined, and by 2015 there will be more smartphone users than desktop and laptops users combined, per Mary Meeker.

2. Today’s mobile commerce design is reminiscent of 1990s Web sites, but no doubt that is going to change and change very rapidly.

3. By the end of 2011, customers will expect an excellent, relevant mobile experience that prioritizes content that is important to them while they are on the go.

Mass merchants
Mass merchants such as Zappos, Sears/Kmart and Target have thousands of brands, so to try to navigate through that sort of inventory on a mobile device can be very difficult.

The mobile sites of these types of retailers focus on putting search at top of the page and drilling down by product category down below.

For example, Zappos’ mobile site leads with portal for search, brand lookup and browsing by gender, boiling down what they do on the PC site so it fits on a mobile site. The approach is very simple and straightforward.

To create its mobile site, the company removed marketing messages and featured products or brands that are on its PC site.

Target’s mobile site also leads with search, with minimal call-outs about browsing assortment and a heavy focus on the needs of in-store shoppers, from daily deals and store lookup to deals, coupons and weekly ads.

“They’re not necessarily really driving the product base—they’ve removed promotion callouts, home page hero content and category callouts,” Mr. Davis said. “They’re focused on searching and browsing, simplifying the main navigation experience so that it is quick and efficient.

“They are focusing on simplicity to a Spartan degree to offer what people are looking for on the go,” he said. “If you’re a mass retailer, this is the status quo at the moment.

“I do think this is going to become tedious after a while, as all mass-market retailers seem to be using the same template.”

Look-up sites
Look-up sites from airlines, hotels and movie-ticketing companies target on-the-go consumers looking for quick information.

They do tend to have shopping or commerce ability, but it may not be why consumers visit that site, per Mr. Davis.

A lot of lookup sites lead with a download-our-app call-to-action and a login feature for customization, profiling or quick checkout.

Ecommerce is often secondary or even an afterthought, per Mr. Davis.

Brand retailers
The mobile sites from brand retailers such as American Eagle and Kenneth Cole often lead with their sister brands via tabs, features consistent cross-channel marketing messages and product search, while removing the bottom of the page marketing or promotional banner from the PC site.

“We are a brand, we represent a lifestyle, an attitude, and we’re trying to carry that personality or persona into the mobile space,” Mr. Davis said. “It’s about a cross-channel experience, whether you’re viewing the site on a computer, iPad or mobile phone, the experience is more or less the same.

“You have to realize that you have a very captive audience, a very special audience coming through the mobile channel, often younger shoppers,” he said. “We trimmed down the mobile site navigation to increase speed and efficiency and keep the form and function sleek and quick, and it has paid dividends over and over.

“We want to offer a consistent experience across any channel—everywhere shoppers’ experience should be seamless across in-store, online and mobile.”

Final Take
Kenneth Cole’s Mr. Davis

Visit us at www.themobilexperience.com