Strategy

Fort Worth, Texas -- RadioShack Corp. said it plans to close up to 1,100 stores, approximately one-fifth of its total, and also announced a disappointing holiday season and a wider quarterly loss. The shutterings will leave the chain, whose turnaround appears to be still far off, with over 4,000 locations, including more than 900 dealer franchise locations.

A survey of 87 retailers conducted by Pacific Gas & Electric found many are unhappy with their lighting and are considering LED lighting to save energy. But, at the same time, they lack sufficient information to evaluate products.

Cape Town, South Africa -- South African retailer Woolworths has implemented MetricStream's Sustainability Performance Management Solution to capture and measure sustainability metrics and indicators around energy, water, soil, and waste management. The solution will also help Woolworths monitor supplier compliance with sustainability guidelines, and optimize the performance of the company's sustainability projects and initiatives.

By Mark Ledbetter, Global VP Retail Strategy, SAP

The changing nature of retail combined with an ever-greater reliance on data is forcing retailers to adjust their workforce and employee skill sets accordingly. From a customer experience standpoint, most retailers are transitioning to a brick-and-click model that aims to ensure customers have a seamless shopping experience regardless of which channel they use.

Gates, N.Y. - Wegmans Food Markets begins recruitment for full-time positions March 4 for its latest Massachusetts location, Burlington, which is scheduled to open in fall 2014. The company's third location in the state is a 135,000 sq.-ft. supermarket that includes a Market Cafe with indoor and outdoor seating. Going forward, Wegmans also plans to open more stores in Massachusetts, including a location in Westwood, in 2015.

The nation’s leading home improvement retailer is no stranger to e-commerce, but its efforts to offer a more robust omnichannel experience took a major step forward recently with the opening of the company’s first direct fulfillment center.

New York -- Verizon Enterprise Solutions has added new features to its cloud-based Mobile Workforce Manager solution and signed a resale agreement with enterprise mobility management provider MobileIron. Verizon's Mobile Workforce Manager, previously known as Enterprise-Mobility-as-a-Service, has been enhanced with new features that securely separate users' business and personal lives across devices and improve functionality for managing mobile applications, offering an overall simplified user experience.

Momentum to continue through 2014

By most accounts, 2013 was a banner year for IPOs. According to Renaissance Capital, a total of 222 companies went public in 2013, marking the best year for the IPO market since 2000. As we predicted in a previous article in Chain Store Age, the retail and consumer products industry played a key role in this IPO activity, accounting for 19 offerings and $8.3 billion in proceeds. This marked a notable increase from the number of offerings seen in 2012 (15) and 2011 (12), according to Renaissance Capital.