Corporate Governance

During a keynote at the recent Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco, Tim Theriault, senior VP/CIO of Walgreens, discussed his company’s ongoing efforts at IT innovation. Walgreens has been involved in a number of notable recent innovative technology implementations, but column looks at the underlying strategy that helps ensure the success of those rollouts.

Here are three takeaways other retailers can glean from Walgreens’ innovation strategy:

Walgreens is conducting a developer contest to encourage integration of its Balance Rewards application program interface (API), which allows users of other apps to earn Balance Rewards loyalty program points for making healthy choices. Rewards points can be redeemed for merchandise in-store or online.
 

Salt Lake City - Spring Mobile, a retailer of AT&T wireless phones and a wholly-owned subsidiary of GameStop Corp., has acquired 53 retail store locations from Product Center. With the addition of the new locations, Spring Mobile now operates 298 stores in 26 states.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. - Kohl’s Department Stores is launching a new omnichannel loyalty program called Yes2You Rewards in stores and online nationwide. The program is designed to offer personalized “incentives and surprises,” as well as points for every in-store and online purchase.

In this, the eighth installment in CSA's PizzaRev series, we’re featuring a Q&A that pools the expertise of several seasoned franchise operators to highlight the pros and cons of franchising with established brands and new concepts.

New York -- Associated Foods Stores president Robert Sigel announced that Zulema Wiscovitch has joined the company as executive VP and chief administrative officer.

Newegg has opened a high-tech warehouse and shipping today in Indianapolis. The leading technology e-retailer estimates that the new warehouse will allow 45 million people in the Midwestern U.S. to get their orders faster.

In addition to Indiana, customers in Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin and West Virginia will see the greatest benefit, with noticeably shorter delivery times.

Coach is using the MicroStrategy Analytics Platform and MicroStrategy Mobile to build an interactive mobile app that provides its retail teams with the ability to examine sales trends for any given geography, including at the individual store level, with a swipe or tap on their iPad devices.