Old Navy hit five million "likes" on Facebook on Tuesday, and as promised, they're saying thanks with its biggest promotion ever: a "human coupon" that offers 30 percent off an entire purchase from Oct. 12-14. Download it at OldNavy.com/5million, and check out the making of video below.Continue reading...

Older customers are more likely to use digital coupons for in-store purchases, with an average 10% increase in median age yielding a 2.49% increase in activation rates for retail coupons in urban U.S. counties.

That's one of the findings from a new study by RevTrax, an omnichannel promotions platform for brands and retailers to drive and measure in-store sales. The new survey of of digital coupon activations shows the relationship between demographics and digital coupon conversion.

“The data we’re releasing illustrates digital’s ability to provide brands and retailers with more precise and detailed insight into the relationship between coupons and consumer behavior than traditional direct marketing has provided over the last several decades,” said Jonathan Trieber, co-founder and CEO, RevTrax.

The study cross-referenced aggregated, non-identifiable digital coupon activation data from millions of coupons between January and April of 2012, parsed by location, income, age, household, education, political affiliation and employment.

“Marketers have begun to realize that digital advertising should not be aligned just with ecommerce marketing budgets," Trieber commente, "but also with brick & mortar budgets, especially given that 90% of retail sales still take place offline.”Continue reading...

Daily Deal sites are among the fastest growing online vertical. Leaders like Groupon, LivingSocial and Gilt Groupe dominate a category that has attracted $1.6 billion of VC investment this year so far, according to the most recent 2011 Daily Deal Investment Index.

“Globally, there are more than 3,000 total daily deal companies, including more than 1,000 in China, more than 900 in Europe, and more than 600 in South America," according to dailydealmedia.com.

Groupon expects August U.S. sales to rise 12% over last month, with marketing expenses down 20% and declining, as the brand’s focus moves from subscriber acquisition to securing paid customers. Its CEO, Andrew Mason, recently addressed rumors surrounding an imminent IPO: “When I read some of the press this weekend, I realized a rational person could read this stuff and wrongly conclude that we’re in trouble. The irony is hopefully clear: We’ve never been stronger.”

Mason accused competitor LivingSocial.com of “buying gift certificates from national retailers and reselling them to users to give the appearance of a 50 percent off deal,” to which LivingSocial spokesman Brendan Lewis replied: “No Groupon executives have access to our internal revenue or financial numbers, and thus any claims made by such executives should be met with deep skepticism.”Continue reading...