Strategy

Express CEO Michael Weiss was optimistic about the retailer’s progress in the second quarter, especially considering the difficult environment the company has been dealing with in recent months.

Everyone knows that stores need extra staff during the holiday shopping rush, but there is a big difference between carefully scheduling employees when and where they are needed and simply adding bodies to a store’s headcount. San Francisco-based beauty retailer Sephora has come up with a solution: The company is expanding its use of the Ceridian Dayforce workforce management platform to adjust holiday staffing according to both historical sales data and current trends.

“We forecast the entire quarter’s sales and payroll,” explained Gino Filice, IT manager of Sephora.

Newgistics, a leading provider of end-to-end e-commerce solutions for top retailers and brands, has added Andrea Weiss and Robert Rosenblatt to its board of directors.

The company said that it plans to leverage the duo’s first-hand knowledge of what retailers need to compete in an increasingly omnichannel environment.

Grocery-anchored centers respond to changing consumer tastes and consolidation

As supermarket tenants are challenged to meet the needs of an increasingly diversified and sophisticated consumer base, and given the significant trend toward consolidation, landlords are tasked with delivering top-notch grocery-anchored centers — with a diminishing number of anchors from which to choose.

Add in growing pressure on the grocery segment from competitors in the mass merchandise, discount and even dollar store verticals, plus small — but real — grocery in

Electrolux has joined the AllSeen Alliance, a nonprofit open source consortium, as a premier member. The company joins Haier, LG, Microsoft, Panasonic, Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Sharp, Silicon Image, Technicolor and TP-Link as premier members of the alliance.

Irving, Texas – The Michaels Companies Inc. on Wednesday reported a net loss of $48 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to net income of $17 in the year-ago period, as $68 million in costs associated with debt-extinguishment and drove the retailer into the red. Its results, however, beat analysts estimates, and the company raised its full-year outlook. It was Michaels’ first earnings report since it went public again at the end of June.

Petaluma, Calif. – MarketLive is integrating Visa Checkout directly into its e-commerce platform. Visa Checkout is a new way to pay online, on any device, with a few clicks.

Integrating Visa Checkout into MarketLive’s e-commerce platform allows MarketLive’s retail customers to offer the service to a growing number of consumers who are shopping via smartphones and tablets.

Fort Worth Texas – Hedge fund Standard General LP, RadioShack’s second-largest shareholder, is reportedly trying to negotiate a “rescue package” by obtaining debt and equity financing from outside investors. According Bloomberg, Standard General is also meeting with RadioShack management to create a plan that will let the retailer avoid filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.