Report: Back-to-school item prices up nearly 10% in July

A federal appellate court has revived a lawsuit by two Meta Platforms users who say they lost money after responding to fraudulent ads on Facebook. The ruling, issued last week by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, allows Oregon resident Christopher Calise and Nebraska resident Anastasia Groschen to attempt to prove that the company violated its terms of service by allegedly failing to police Facebook ads placed by third parties. The decision stems from a lawsuit brought by Calise and Groschen in 2021, when they accused the company of soliciting fraudulent ads from advertisers based in China.

2020 is a year we will always remember, yet one we would like to forget. It was a year that changed our lives forever. Some have been affected more than others, but we all have a story to tell. People talk about “the new normal,” but what exactly does that mean to retailers and direct marketers? Let’s take a walk into the future and see what it looks like. Actually, we're living the future now. Several of our clients cut circulation in early 2020 in light of the advancing pandemic. They reduced their marketing efforts in anticipation of what was to come. It was the logical action to take, but for many consumer mailers, it was the wrong thing to do at the time. Revenues increased unexpectedly and remain strong today. Trips to retail stores reduced by at least half, and consumers went online to order gifts, apparel, home furnishings, food and other products. COVID changed the way we shop. It also leapfrogged us into the future. From a marketing standpoint, 2020 looks more like what we would have expected five years from now. read more at source: https://www.mytotalretail.com/post/catalog-and-digital-marketing-the-future-is-here-now/

When was the last time you truly enjoyed scrolling through page after page of search results on Amazon? Settling into your favorite chair to just explore and see what comes next? If you’re like most consumers, probably never, really. Search for products online is more like a task-oriented scavenger hunt to find the thing that best matches your keywords, “lost in the noise of digital advertising.” A catalog, on the other hand, is a journey in itself, an inspiring experience that opens up new ideas in a tactile way that our brains relish. Recent news from IKEA that they are doing away with their catalog after 70 years is going to break a lot of hearts; they were a prime example of catalogers who “get it” and turned paper and ink into a journey of possibilities. (And their wickedly good catalog marketing campaigns ensured robust buzz about it.) It’s a mistake, no doubt. Given the resurgence of catalogs during the pandemic lockdowns, marketers have no doubt that catalogs serve a critical function in the retail and e-commerce experience. much more at: https://freeportpress.com/the-experience-of-the-catalog-is-what-makes-it-work-so-well/