This Week’s Trends in Social Media + Digital Marketing

+Target Opens Next-Day Delivery Pilot to Minneapolis Customers

“After a brief month and a half trial period with employees, Target has officially opened up its Target Restock program to shoppers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the retailer announced in a post on its website.

The next-day replenishment service of household essentials, offered exclusively to Target REDcard members, charges a flat fee of $4.99 per box, regardless of how many items are included. Shoppers can choose from more than 10,000 items as they fill their Restock boxes.

As shoppers add items to a virtual box, an on-screen percentage bar tracks how much space each item added takes up, and how much is left. The orders are filled at the nearest Target store and delivered the next business day.”

According to RetailDive, from the moment of the original announcement, it was clear that Target was putting together a service to rival Amazon’s Prime Pantry program — and perhaps Amazon’s Dash replenishment program too. It’s a little disappointing then to see Target Restock proceed with a very limited initial launch after excitement started to build, although the caution may reflect how complex it is to get a program like this up and running, and working reliably.

— Read more Via the Bullseye Blog

+Study: How In-Store, Online Shopping Complement Each Other

“In-store shopping activity drives almost half of e-commerce sales, according to a global consumer survey from SapientRazorfish and Salesforce. More than half of shoppers — 60% of respondents — start their hunt in the digital channel but prefer shopping in physical locations.

The notion of in-store and online as complimentary channels was one of four strategic insights drawn from the resulting report, which blended data from three sources — the Salesforce Shopping Index, which looks at the shopping activity of more than 300 million shoppers worldwide; a global survey of the preferences and motivations of 6,000 shoppers across six countries; and 27 interviews with retail experts in technology and customer experience, the companies said.” — Via RetailDive

+Study: Millennials Prefer Brands that Offer an Emotional Connection, Sense of Transparency and Community

“When deciding between brands, millennial consumers seek emotional connections, a recent study by the Fashion Institute of Technologyfound; 48% of millennials are more likely to buy from a brand if they know the people behind it and 47% expressed a desire for brands to take ownership of their mistakes and take the consumer’s feedback into account.

The researchers found that millennials were drawn to brands that fulfill a “Trust Loop” with the consumer: brands that are not only more humanized, but focus on transparency, experience and community rather than simply quality.

The study also revealed that consumers are evolving faster than retailers, creating a “Consumer Experience Gap” that leaves only the most adaptable retailers with a chance at survival.” — Via RetailDive

+Publishers are Switching Affections from Snapchat to Instagram

“Today, parent company Snap is facing questions about user growth and retention, with all the moves Facebook’s Instagram is making to copy Snapchat’s features, as its declining stock price shows. Instagram’s moves are paying off with publishers, many of whom have shifted their enthusiasm to Instagram.

“It’s important for publishers to use both platforms to maximize audience reach and mitigate the risk of platform dependency,” said Matt Starker, GM of digital at Condé Nast, which has Discover channels for Vogue, GQ, Wired and Self. “And Snapchat and Instagram both have large and growing subscriber and follower bases.”

But outside Discover, the organic accounts are intended for individuals to message with their friends, not for publishers to broadcast to users. The bet Snapchat seems to be making is that keeping publisher content separate from its core messaging feature will make the experience better for users. But for publishers having finite resources to put toward all these platforms, Snapchat isn’t seen as having the best payoff. Instagram also is growing faster outside the U.S. than Snapchat, and some publishers think that overseas growth can help them get more awareness with audiences overseas.” — Via Digiday

+New Hires at Pinterest Hint at More Video Ads — And New Categories — to Come

“Pinterest is undergoing an ad team reboot, picking off talent from top competitors Googleand Facebook, as the company looks to infuse the site with more video and expand the types of brands it attracts.

Pinterest announced Thursday the hiring of a new head of ad products Jon Alferness, a 13-year veteran of shopping and travel products at Google. The announcement follows a lesser known, but equally telling, hire of Meredith Guerriero, who last worked at Facebook on its global strategy and commercialization of programmatic ad offerings.” — Via Advertising Age

+Get Ready for the LinkedIn Video Pivot

“LinkedIn started rolling out the ability to record and post native videos directly from its mobile app today. The idea behind the feature is that you can post a video from a conference or a quick take on the day’s headlines from wherever you are, directly to your connections on the site. At this time, the feature is only available to registered influencers on the cahannel, but should be ready to roll out to more individuals within the year.” — via FastCompany