Corporate Governance

PayPal combines product and engineering oversight
San Jose, Calif. – PayPal Holdings Inc. is combining the management structure for its product and engineering departments.

Hill Ferguson, who served as senior VP of PayPal’s consumer business, has resigned his position.

Ferguson’s role will not be directly replaced. Instead, Bill Ready, senior VP and global head of merchant and next-generation commerce, is also assuming control of the consumer side of operations. This means he will oversee all product and engineering activities.
7-Eleven gets even more convenient
Dallas – 7-Eleven Inc. bases its value proposition on being a convenient way of purchasing food and CPG staples. But for consumers who are too time-strapped to even make a quick visit to their nearest 7-Eleven store, the retailer is offering a new omnichannel delivery service.

7-Eleven and omnichannel delivery provider DoorDash are partnering to provide on-demand delivery from participating 7-Eleven stores in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, with delivery service following in Washington, D.C. and Boston in the coming months.

Another retailer joins the innovation lab ranks

Denver – Another company has joined the constantly expanding ranks of retailers who operate proprietary innovation labs.

Demonstrating that the appeal of innovation labs is moving beyond major chains, specialty online retailer eBags is teaming with Iterate Studio to jointly create a two-part innovation lab.
IHL: One vendor dominates hardgoods POS market

Franklin, Tenn. – Unlike the softgoods retail POS market where there are two leading vendors, one vendor clearly dominates the POS market for hardgoods retailers.

According to the new “POS Software of Hardgoods” study from IHL Group, Oracle is the clear market leader in the hardgoods market, with 39 of the top 200 accounts.
Report: Forever 21 seeks smaller stores, loan

Los Angeles – Forever 21, known for operating some truly large stores, is reportedly rethinking that strategy.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the specialty fast-fashion retailer is also in talks to obtain a $150 million load.
K-VA-T stays in the money

Arlington, Va. – Regional southeastern grocery retailer K-VA-T Food Stores is staying in the money, and doing it remotely.

The operator of the Food City and Super Dollar banners has implemented vbInSight by Balance Innovations as its corporate reporting solution.

vbInSight is a Web-based corporate reporting application that provides K-VA-T with immediate access, via alerts, to individual and aggregate bookkeeper and cashier data.
NRF ‘astounded’ by Labor Department overtime decision

Washington, D.C. -- The Labor Department is not extending the comment period on the Obama administration’s proposal to expand overtime pay. Its decision drew a no-holds barred response from the nation’s largest retail organization.
H-E-B is Instacart’s newest partner

San Francisco -- Regional supermarket operator H-E-B has joined the ranks of retailers offering home delivery service.

The chain is the latest retailer to reach an agreement with grocery delivery service provider Instacart. Under the deal, Instagram will offer home delivery to H-E-B customers in the Austin and Houston markets.
Dollar Tree merger good for sales, but related costs hammer earnings

Chesapeake, Va. -- Dollar Tree swung to a loss in its second quarter on higher integration costs related to its acquisition of a formal rival. But its revenue skyrocketed as a result of the merger.

On July 6, Dollar Tree completed its $9 billion acquisition of Family Dollar Inc.
Lowe’s Canada to reward customers with air miles

Toronto -- Shoppers at Lowe’s stores in Canada will soon be able to turn their purchases into miles toward air travel.

Lowe's Canada and LoyaltyOne Co., owner and operator of the Air Miles Reward Program, announced an agreement to launch the reward program with an anticipated full roll-out to Lowe's stores in Canada beginning on Dec. 1.
Canadian Lowe’s customers will be able to earn Air Miles reward miles at all Canadian Lowe's retail locations and for purchases online at Lowes.ca.
Dollar Tree profits from Family Dollar deal

The acquisition of Family Dollar in the second quarter led Dollar Tree Inc. to report quarterly sales that were up more than 48% from a year ago.

For the second quarter ended Aug. 1, Dollar Tree reported sales of $3.01 billion, boosted by $811.6 million in sales from Family Dollar. Same store sales rose 2.7%. Dollar Tree reported income of $138.9 million. The retailer’s earnings were 67 cents.
Lowes Canada targets frequent fliers

Shoppers at Lowe’s stores in Canada will soon be able to turn their purchases into miles toward air travel.