This holiday season, many of us did part, most or all of our shopping online — and we spent a bundle. Did you get free shipping on any of your deals? Did you back out of any deals because of shipping charges? It turns out, many of us are turned off by having to pay for shipping and we’ll spend more if we know the shipping is free. This graphic illustrates how free shipping is king in online sales.

by Column Five Media via

Harrah’s became the most successful casino in the US with one deadly weapon: Loyalty cards. When customers sign up for Harrah’s loyalty program, they get free money to gamble with. Who wouldn’t want that at a casino?

As a result of the loyalty program, Harrah’s gets a treasure trove of customer information*. They know what games you play, how long you play them, how much you usually spend before leaving, and how much you’re winning (or not).

If you’re a slots player, when the Harrah’s system senses you’re losing more than usual, a dispatcher calls the casino attendant on the floor. That person finds you and offers cash or a free dinner or discount concert tickets. Because of this, you feel like you still “won” something. You’re happy. You become the ultimate loyal customer.

Harrah’s program is a goldmine. But when it comes to online loyalty programs, many other retailers flail around, like they’re trying to mine gold with a miniature screwdriver.

Image: James Bowe/Flickr

A recent survey by real-time rewards management company ACI Worldwide found that 49% of loyalty program members never or rarely take advantage of their programs while shopping online. 53% of Americans who are members of loyalty programs visit retailer websites to look for discounts. 52% of Americans want a consolidated retail card; most retailers just don’t give them out. Nearly 80% of respondents didn’t understand the value that they were getting from at least one of their programs.

What gives? I caught up with Robert Seward, ACI Worldwide’s Senior Industry Marketing Manager, to learn more about the survey, where companies are falling short, and what they need to do to actually spur loyalty in their programs.

BP: Can you tell me a little bit about why loyalty programs are so important in general?

During the last couple of years, with the recession, consumers have shifted to discount shopping. It’s the new normal. Many retailers have had to find ways to reconnect with their consumers and drive opportunity for them to shop in their stores again. That is the loyalty aspect.

These rewards programs are really an opportunity for retailers to improve the store sales and get more people into the store. But rewards are also important as a customer servicing aspect of the business. Retailers can reward the people that do shop with them.

BP: The survey mentioned that half of Americans prefer a consolidated loyalty device (where consumers have different retailers’ programs on one card). Why haven’t companies made these more available if people want them?

Many retailers have come out with their own type of card-based program. You trace this back through grocery stores. They were the first ones to market their frequent shopper cards. So I think that’s the genesis behind the need.

What was surprising to me was that the loyalty movement went towards a consolidated card. I assumed that mobile applications would garner much more attention. Based on the demographics of the survey, going from anybody 18 and up, I really expected to see a higher response rate to the mobile side of it.

I think the challenge there is that consolidated cards drive back towards coalition programs. I think that’s where the challenge is going to be, for retailers to work together to drive that consolidation.

BP: Can you tell me what a coalition program is and how it works?

It’s where you’ve got at least three retailers or parties working together to drive cross-retailer programs. For example, maybe you have a convenience station, a fuel station, and maybe they don’t have a car wash. So they work out an agreement with the local car wash provider. Show your receipt at the car wash if you bought at least 8 gallons of gas, and you get a buck off at the car wash, that kind of thing.

Coalition programs can become very elaborate. We referenced a couple of the programs in place in the UK and South Africa where you have a lot of retailers that are participating with a consolidated card.

BP: I noticed in your survey that customers want easy online access to their loyalty programs. I assume that that’s not quite in place. Why would it be hard for customers to have online access? What’s in the way?

Over the past couple of years, if you’re following the retail segment, you’ll hear about multi-channel retailing, customer-centric retailing.

A lot of stores, especially the larger retailers, followed a best-of-breed approach when they chose their software and business applications. Now, you have the consumers wanting to shop online, in the store, shop online and pick up at the store, shop online and return product to the store, all the aspects of it. Now you factor in mobility, with mobile payments, mobile marketing, the access to information. Consumers are expecting retailers to be a little bit more agile.

That’s where retailers struggle with the previous strategy and the best-of-breed approach being able to integrate those systems. To me, it was coupling of two systems as opposed to an integrated approach. So they have to do a modernization of their business applications to achieve that. I think that’s where the challenge comes from not being able to utilize the rewards programs online.

I think the other thing is a lot of the retailer rewards programs today are driven out of their point-of-sales (POS) systems. The POS systems will work well to a certain extent, but typically a POS system isn’t integrated with the ecommerce website. I don’t think I was surprised by the survey responses in terms of being able to use their loyalty or see a value of a loyalty program online.

BP: Do you think retailers will upgrade their systems within the next couple years or do you think they’ll hold out as long as they can?

I think they absolutely will, and I think they are starting to kick in a more concerted effort of looking at the programs with how they can update their applications. So yeah, I absolutely believe that.

BP: Could you talk about a couple of other things that retailers could do to get their loyalty programs right?

One of our survey questions was “which of the following, if any, has happened to you when you were trying to use your loyalty card at the store or retailer?” We had 7% say that they received a reward or promotion that actually made them think less of a store or a retailer.

You first look at it, you go, “Okay, not a big deal.” Then you realize that the purpose of a reward program is to basically thank a customer for shopping and incentivize them to continue shopping or buy more with you. To think that 1/10 had a bad experience is–I’m just surprised there were even that many responses to that question.

What retailers need to do is really evaluate the program and what they are trying to do with it. At the end of the day, you’re trying to increase sales, but to me it drives back to being a customer service opportunity for them, an opportunity to optimize the customer interaction with that retailer. I think that’s where the challenges lie. Retailers probably are not looking at it from that perspective.

I think this is moving towards driving that consistent shopping experience. I can offer personal experiences at looking at products online, going into the store, and finding out, “well hold on, the store price is a hundred dollars more than the online price.” And working with the store managers to try and get that resolved, and in some cases getting the price, and in other cases not getting the price and leaving. That’s the only time I don’t know if I’d shop there again.

Retailers need to evaluate customers’ personal experiences at their stores. They need to think about what consumers want in their shopping experience. And I think there are ways for them to execute against scenarios where customers want to leave.

Official bio: Robert Seward is a senior marketing manager for ACI Worldwide and is responsible for the delivery and execution of marketing programs and product strategy for ACI’s merchant retail line of business. Seward has over 18 years of professional experience in the payments industry.

*Source: a Radiolab episode.

With the way the world is shifting often times your online presence is much more important than anything else.

If someone walks in your store, they might immediately go home and look up your website to see what they might have missed. They then might move to look for your Twitter account, so they can follow you and see if you’re offering specials and discounts. THEN, they will probably try to see if you have a Facebook fan page. It’s true.

So what can you do to make sure you’re branding your business efficiently?

Twitter

If you have a Twitter account, make sure you’re using a company branded background.

This not only gives the user the complete experience when they explore your Twitter page, but it just clues them in that you have somebody taking care of, and maintaining, your Twitter page. It might also push them to interact with you, and you ultimately want customer engagement on platforms like this, so you can effectively communicate and share messages.

You can either hire an internal social media strategist to handle anything in relation to:

• Provide customer service- assist by replying to any mentions or DMs
• Watch trending topics among different sectors related to Best Buy’s products
• Engage with consumers

This way you have a strong interactive brand on Twitter.

Website/Blog & Themes

Depending on what type of business you are, you want to have a website and/or blog that’s constantly updated with either sales or content.

If you’re a retail store, such as best buy, you want to make sure that your website is branded the same as your social media pages.

Some brands even decide to keep a blog separate from their site, and design it differently. You’ll notice that the blog for Starbucks is branded a little differently and lighter than their regular store site:

Branding and coloring works perfectly in both of these cases. If you’re a business that doesn’t necessarily have a store front, and isn’t tied to any particular color scheme, you can start up a WordPress blog (through .org – the WordPress.com site doesn’t give you many options for themes) and get a calm and clean theme to give your blog the appearance of simplicity.

Here’s some examples of some clean and simple WordPress themes for businesses:

Corporate Theme ($59.99)

Widget ready and two column, this premium theme has a dark background that isn’t flashy or distracting.

Source/Demo | Purchase

Business Turnkey Theme (Free)

The Business Turnkey theme comes in both this black simplistic theme as well as one with a lighter blue and white scheme. It’s two column and widget ready.

Demo | Download | Video

Unstandard WordPress Theme

The Unstandard WordPress theme has a different layout and the ability to have medium sized thumbnails for each post, as well as one main image that you can rotate out. This would be more ideal for photography or very image oriented businesses, rather than a small or corporate business.

Demo | Download | Video

All of these themes are of course plugin ready, so you’ll be able to add things such as TweetMeMe, Facebook fan page boxes, custom comment plugins, etc. for total engagement with your consumers.

Facebook Fan Page

Many people overlook the power of a fan page, mainly because Facebook was originally intended for college students and hasn’t only recently been widely accepted as a great marketing platform.

Having not only a branded fan page, but one that has interactive tabs and applications, is the key to branding yourself on this platform.

You’ll notice that they not only went through and had custom tabs (applications) made, but they also allow the consumers to check out their weekly ads and invite them  to also ask their friends about what they’re looking for.

Again, you can can hire a social media strategist or keep one in-house to manage this. To make sure your brand isn’t tarnished, they can:

• provide customer service and reply to messages and private messages
• delete any slanderous or unnecessarily negative posts
• offer special incentives for fans

If you want to truly brand your business, there’s many facets you need to take in consideration; whether that be your social presence, your business site (or retail site) presence and your blog presence. Keeping everything updating constantly, as well as cohesive and clean, will help solidify and strengthen your brand.

Mall owner Simon Properties has offered to buy out rival General Growth Properties for $10 billion. A buyout could create the largest high-end mall owner in the US:

The nation’s largest shopping mall owner, Simon Property Group, made a $10 billion hostile bid Tuesday to acquire its ailing rival, General Growth Properties.

Simon made the public offer after General Growth executives failed to make a “substantive response” Simon’s overtures.

The Wall Street Journal gives a bigger picture on what this means for mall ownership and retailers:

The deal, if accepted by General Growth’s board and approved by its creditors and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper, would combine two of the largest and oldest mall owners in the U.S. into a colossus with 550 malls—at least a third of the entire U.S. market. Such heft would give Simon unrivaled clout in lease negotiations with retailers and in financing talks with its lenders.

Should General Growth choose to accept Simon’s bid, the combination will have ramifications for mall retailers such as Gap Inc., Footlocker Inc. and Limited Brands Inc. A mall owner with hundreds of locations can pressure retailers to open stores in struggling malls as a condition of getting space in its best-quality malls. In addition, a retailer is less likely to fight a giant landlord over the terms of a given store’s lease if the standoff might influence negotiations on its leases at other of that landlord’s properties.

Hanky Pankies

Many women are currently crazy about hanky pankies, stretch lace thong underwear touted to be the world’s most comfortable. Bonus: They look sexy, too.

Appearance polishers

Some stores offer special V-Day makeup gift packages, like this one from Sephora.

While women prefer to buy some makeup themselves, most will appreciate gift sets. Go for lip glosses, eye shadow color samplers like this one, or prepackaged makeup sets.

Gourmet chocolate

Chocolove chocolates come with a poem inside. Plus, they’re ridiculously good. Image: Chocolove

If your woman likes chocolate–most do–indulge her with a high-end confection. Such treats include truffles, salted caramels, or even bacon chocolate. Most high-end grocers sell them.

Pampering tools

This sugar lover’s set from Sephora costs $45.

Provide her with the right tools to pamper herself. Many stores sell shower gel, scrubs, masks, and other tools of the trade in packs or gift baskets.

Lingerie

This Frederick’s of Hollywood chemise facilitates sexy sleep for a mere $34.

This traditional Valentine’s Day gift doesn’t have to set you back much. Try a chemise or babydoll if you want something more subtle; go for a teddy and garters to get wild.

Massage gift certificate

Image: Thomas Wanhoff/Flickr

Some masseuses, especially those located in retail shops, offer massages for less than $50. She’ll appreciate the gift–and the relaxation it helps her attain.

Framed couples picture

This happy couple from The Onion shares antidepressants.

Find a nice picture of the two of you, then have it framed. Simple, budget-friendly, and she’ll love it.

Dance lesson

You may cringe at the thought of ballroom or salsa dancing, but this bullet is worth biting. By buying a class for the two of you, you’re showing her that you value her feminine fantasy more than your own mortal embarrassment. She’ll appreciate you for it.

Potted plant

Image: US Candle Co.

While cut flowers die after a week, potted ones can keep blooming for months. Tulips, orchids, and daffodils should be available at your local grocery store. If you don’t know what her favorites are, defaulting to small potted roses is usually a safe bet.

Comfortable sleepwear

These Victoria’s Secret pajamas look sweet and sexy for under $40.

Pajamas can be sexy, too. And women love a good pair of comfortable, cute PJs. Victoria’s Secret usually has a good selection.

Cute carrying case

This bag from Barefoot Yoga keeps her yoga mat fashionably cloaked.

Your woman likes to look good. Help her make her stuff look nice, too, by finding a cute carrying bag. Any bag applies, from diaper bags to gym bags to yoga mat bags like the one above.

Accessories

Scarves and stacked bracelets are among the “it” accessories to have right now–and blissfully cheap to get your hands on. ShySiren has lots of bejeweled purse hangers like the ones above (also trendy); look for other accessories in department stores.

Candles

This Juicy Couture candle combines scent with style (found at Sephora).

A high-quality scented candle (or votive set) can do a lot to lift a woman’s mood. Ask her what scents she likes best, then find good candles to give her.

Crystal

Swarovski crystals are a happy thing.

It’s not a precious gem, but crystal can still make women ooh and aah. You can find crystal pendants, keychains, and bracelets for less than $50. Swarovski has one of the best selections.

Roses

Tried-and-true. A dozen red roses will probably cost more than $50 at the florist, so scour your local grocery store or farmer’s market.

Signage for his Man Cave

Nab a sign like this one from Retroplanet for $20.

If your man’s garage is his second home, help him decorate it with a vintage garage sign. Most won’t set you back more than $20.

A Flash Drive that Fits

ThinkGeek offers this nostalgic mixtape USB for $16.

Flash drives are the new mixtapes. As in, they’re customizable, slick, and very giftable. A perfect addition to your techie man’s hardware set.

A Gamer Gem

For around $30 or less, you can pass along the gift of the game. The hot new game he doesn’t have yet, that is.

Gadget Protection

This leather iTouch case with your man’s initials costs $30 at Guyville.

If he lacks a good iPhone case, laptop bag, sunglasses case, or other mode of stuff protection, consider finding him something he’ll like. Leather is good; so are customizable cases like the ones found at Guyville.

A Universal Command Center

If you think your guy will like an all-in-one remote control, you might want to package it nicely to make it look more romantic. The good thing is that he’ll appreciate and use a good remote, and you can find one for under $30.

Head Decor

This hat from Lids.com costs $30.

Show your team spirit by handing your guy a new baseball cap emblazoned with his favorite name (besides yours, of course). If team sports aren’t his thing, he might appreciate a beanie, vintage trucker cap, or new helmet.

Drinking Accessories

This complete Martha Stewart 7-piece cocktail set costs less than $40.

If your man is of the drink-mixing persuasion, he’ll appreciate a good cocktail set. If he’s more of a beer guy, swap in a couple of nice mugs; if he’s into wine, a pump and stopper set might be the ticket.

A Money Holder

Image: Ducti

If black leather isn’t his thing, try something novel, like the Ducti duct tape wallet featured above.

Duds

Vintage T-shirts cover the gamut of genres and messages. You can go band, general old-school (check out Teenormous), funny, or athletic like the Fan’s Edge tee above.

Functional Art

This screwdriver holder from Speedcult adds flavor to his garage.

Buy him something that he can use and enjoy everyday. It could be a carved metal toolholders like the ones Speedcult sells. Or it could be a functional, attractive razor holder like this one from Manufactum. Artisans and high-end stores sell items like these everyday; keep an eye out.

Man Books

If you’re not sure what kind of book to get him, check out Esquire Magazine’s list of 75 books every man should read.

A DVD Box Set

Help him savor his favorite flicks with a multi-pack. Many Blu-Ray trilogies run just under $50, or you can grab a DVD trilogy for less.

The Sound of Silence

High-end noise-canceling headphones cost more than $50, but you can find reasonable ones for less. The headphones featured above currently cost $45 on Amazon.

Beer of the Month Club

Image: Burnblue/Flickr

Few men can argue with fresh brewski delivered to their doorstep. If you’re low on funds, you can order a delivery every other month, or every third month, and pay on a monthly basis.

A Portable Grill

Nothing says I love you like a portable grill, right? Well…maybe. But he will think of you every time he fires up his new meat-cooking companion. Consider it a constant reminder that you care.

While some people scramble for free khakis, others are indulging in high-end indulgences like designer perfumes and $5,000 coats. The Financial Times has more:

More prosperous American shoppers seem to be defying continuing high unemployment levels and economic uncertainty to renew their spending on luxuries such as jewellery, fashion and cosmetics. That is the picture emerging from the current round of US earnings and sales reports.

The evidence of greater readiness to spend comes in spite of continuing high unemployment, with about 20 per cent of the US population unemployed or working casually or part time. Richard Hastings, retail strategist at Global Hunter Securities, said that roughly half of the 80 per cent of Americans fully employed were not affected by the depressed housing market and were now more ready to spend as they had become less concerned about their own jobs.

I’d like to know what industries and businesses those 40% of Americans work in.

IKEA is lucky to have that kind of fan base. Besides selling furniture, it inspires people enough to make them work (build fansites) for free. Talk about an ironclad brand.

I grew curious. What other companies provoke this kind of reverence? I put together a list of ten major ones.

Coming up tomorrow: 10 companies that inspired hate websites.

IKEA

IKEA may be the world’s biggest furniture retailer, but few call it evil. Instead, customers spend hours there, browsing foldable furniture, eating $2 meatball meals, and exploring endless halls of home accouterments. No wonder the company has serious fans. Not bad for an organization called Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd.

Apple

Master Jobs’ organization more closely resembles a cathedral than a company. It has dozens of fan sites, the most prominent of which include the Apple Blog and Macrumors. If aliens landed in Cupertino and gauged what was going on with Apple and its fans, they may well call it religion.

Nintendo

Back in the 1980s, Nintendo enjoyed something like cult status. If you grew up playing Super Mario Bros., you know what I mean. Two decades later, Nintendo is back in the mainstream spotlight, thanks mostly to the Wii. If you adore Nintendo as much as the people in the forum above, you’re in good company.

Google

Love it or hate it, Google is an Internet mainstay. Some people love it enough to build a fansite. Others hate it enough to build a different kind of shrine. I put it on our love list (there’s a hate list coming soon) for a naughtily subjective reason: I like Google.

Berkshire Hathaway/Warren Buffett

Image: Warrenbuffet.co.za

People around the world revere the Oracle of Omaha. After all, not every stone-cold businessman is also a folksy preacher. He’s so popular that fansites as far away as South Africa follow him closely.

Costco

Ah, Costco. Where the modern-day suburbanite can hunt and gather product like a primitive. Combine that with friendly employees, bulk Mountain Dew, and free samples, and you have a fundamentally satisfying experience. Just ask the folks at I Love Costco and other fansites.

Disney

If you’ve lost your childhood to things like work and mortgages, don’t fret. Disney, which you probably grew up with, can take you right back to five-year-old heaven. If you have five-year-olds of your own, all the better. It’s no wonder this big company has more than one fansite.

Target

Image: Herald Sun

Back in the 1980s, Target was a lowly K-Mart competitor. Then, somebody at corporate got smart. The retailer added designer fashion, groceries, and an excellent selection of home furnishings–for prices a college student can afford. The result? A loyal fan base and steady customers. They’ve even cultivated an online colony of slaves.

Trader Joe’s

Image: Evalu8.org

I never knew how much I liked TJ’s until I moved to Colorado. Sadly, Trader Joe’s doesn’t exist here. That means I can’t get fresh, reasonably-priced produce, a wild selection of coffee and tea, tubs of gourmet snacks, and wine in the same place–for a decent price (sorry, Whole Foods). I miss Trader Joe’s. I bet fans like this one would, too.

Canon

As a Nikon shooter, I kind of don’t get why only Canon has a love page, but hey…there are good reasons to use Canon products. If you must.

If you have always wanted a new Saturn, Pontiac, or Saab, this could be your week. Until January 4, GM will be liquidating its discontinued brands, some for almost 50% off. StreetInsider has more:

General Motors Co. needs to move large inventories of discontinued Saturn and Pontiac vehicles and plans to offer dealers large incentives to do so, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The move to liquidate these products could inflate the company’s December sales and offer a cost cut of up to 46 percent off of the sticker price for buyers.

GM has an estimated two to three months of inventory of Pontiac and Saturn vehicles on the lots totaling 14,500 new automobiles according to Ward’s Auto Reports. Another car-data service, Edmunds estimates that the incentives will allow the company to sell 10,300 cars to reduce inventory to 4,200.

Kiplinger’s Finance (via Time) reports on some of the better fire-sale deals:

GM is offering the biggest discounts on its dying Pontiac, Saturn and Saab brands. You can get up to $3,500 back or 0% financing on a Pontiac Vibe small wagon (the Toyota Matrix’s twin). The 2009 Saturn Aura, a midsize sedan built on the same platform as the Chevy Malibu, has a hefty $4,000 rebate. And Saab 9-3 and 9-5 models come with up to $7,000 cash back to customers, as dealers try to unload inventory in the wake of uncertainty about Saab’s future.

Time adds:

Would-be car buyers are understandably concerned about the prospects of buying a car that won’t be made in the near future. Will warranties be valid even after the brand is discontinued? Will parts be available when repairs are necessary? Will it be easy to find a mechanic who knows how to fix the car? Will the resale or trade-in value of the car hold up?

The answers to those questions, respectively, are yes, probably yes, probably yes, and probably no.

GM’s liquidation could be a killer deal for the right person.

Nike released a limited number of Space Jam Jordans to stores last night. The sneakers, formally named Air Jordan XI (11) Retro Space Jams, are so highly coveted that shoppers crowded malls at midnight or camped out to get a pair.

I recall Air Jordans being the must-have sneaker in the 1990s, but what’s going on with the Space Jams now? The LA Times breaks down what makes the $175 shoe so desirable:

So what goes into making the clump of patent leather, plastic and fabric known as “Style Code:136046-041″ so hotly anticipated and covet-worthy? The story starts in 1985, with the original Nike Air Jordan 1, Michael Jordan’s red-and-black, high-top basketball shoe whose color scheme earned them an NBA ban for violating the league’s uniform policy regulating colors. The NBA levied a fine against Jordan — who played on nonetheless– and a sneaker craze was born, with new, Roman-numeral-designated versions of the Air Jordan (AJ) shoe following just about every year.

(Boutique owner Tak) Kato points out that the delay to market helped stoke demand. “And they haven’t been reissued since that time. So that’s nine more years of demand there. That’s probably going to make it the biggest release of the whole year.”

Nine years of pent-up demand? No wonder sneaker aficionados are going crazy.

Good move by Nike.