DATA: Before acquiring Demandware, Salesforce would only help manage sales leads and sales pipeline data via its Sales Cloud or help in targeting the right customers via its Marketing Cloud or help businesses and their customers resolve service issues via its Service Cloud. Demandware acquisition inserts Salesforce into managing and completing its customers' in-store and e-commerce sales transactions. 

BRAND: Equally as impressive as the pop-up space was what the Jordan Brand put together some fifteen minutes north of the French Quarter at Saint Augustine High School. In a year that the NBA moved All-Star weekend from Charolette in protest of North Carolina's HB2 bill, the spotlight on awareness could not be brighter. Jordan sought not only to be involved with the community, but to be immersed in it.

DATA: Affiliates are discouraged when they learn of reversed commissions because the customer clicked on, say, a merchant’s newsletter in the previous 90 days. This method benefits the brand, by reducing commissions, but it does not encourage long-term affiliate partnerships. Affiliates need to know they are valued.

BRAND: The use of color can be a powerful way to guide the associations consumers have about a brand, but how and why certain colors are used can often be perplexing. The color red is the perfect example. When it is used as a primary color for McDonald’s (MCD), red is meant to energize and attract the attention of potential customers.

BRAND: In another tactic that is becoming increasingly popular in Hollywood, the film's star did more than execute promotions and marketing dreamed up by others. Warner Bros. gave Mr. Arnett concept ideas, and he would often improvise and lend his own voice to the social media effort. That follows in the footsteps of another masked-hero movie—last year's "Deadpool," in which Ryan Reynolds promoted a significant amount of content through his own social media outreach.

ECOMMERCE: Since August 2016, Walmart has acquired e-retail sites Jet.com, ShoeBuy.com, and Moosejaw.com, which positioned the company for strong fourth-quarter e-commerce growth. Online sales at US Walmart stores—which includes sales from Jet.com—grew 29% since the same quarter in the previous year. (Because ShoeBuy.com, and Moosejaw.com were acquired in 2017, their contribution to Walmart’s e-commerce sales won’t be reflected until 2018.)

ECOMMERCE: With Jet.com CEO Marc Lore now in charge of Wal-Mart's e-commerce operation, it should be no surprise that the company is getting aggressive. For Wal-Mart free two-day shipping on orders over $35 will be expensive, but it makes Amazon's non-Prime free shipping offer look far less generous. Even with the lower $35 minimum, Amazon's free shipping still promises delivery in five to eight business days.

ECOMMERCE: The Future of eCommerce special report, published in The Times, addresses the challenges brands face when selling online and offers expert advice on how to tackle these issues. The report investigates how brands can compete with Amazon, why social media is transforming shopping and ways to harness the power of automation. In addition, Alibaba’s UK business development director reveals what makes Chinese consumers click

ECOMMERCE: For high-end retail there is Tmall. “It’s like Westfield shopping centre on the internet,” says Mr Lloyd. “It is the home of large successful brands where they can connect with Chinese consumers." And for smaller sellers there is Taobao. Like eBay, it’s where individuals and micro enterprises can sell direct. Whereas Tmall goods are of guaranteed quality, Taobao is a bit wilder and less policed.

ECOMMERCE: Both Alibaba’s Tmall and JD.com are taking advantage of an ecommerce market in China that shows no signs of slowing. iResearch estimated that the gross merchandise value (GMV) of B2C ecommerce in China totaled RMB4.7 trillion ($707.5 billion) in 2016, up 23.9% from RMB3.8 trillion ($572.0 billion) in 2015

MEDIA: Digiday’s focus is on the modernization of the media and marketing business. Many times this is viewed through silos: mobile, video, social. But in reality, there’s media (those who create audiences through content or software) and marketers (those who want to sell things to those audiences). We feel like this simple division is a way of cutting through the noise.

MEDIA: Instagram, somehow, has innovated on Snapchat’s core ideas at an incredible clip: instead of making you see a story sequentially, you can tap either side of the screen to skip forward or back. You can swipe to get between stories, creating what amounts to an endless loop of content, or you can tap and hold to freeze-frame it on what you’re seeing.