Apple, Inc.

ShopKeep POS has launched a handheld point of sale device that will use Griffin Olli hardware with the ShopKeep POS app. Called ShopKeep Mobile, it is designed for the iPod touch and features an encrypted credit card swiper and high-speed laser barcode scanner to ring up sales right from the showroom floor.

ShopKeep Mobile also comes with all the functionality of the ShopKeep POS app, including: a full suite of reports, inventory management, employee timekeeping, customer database, email receipts, and support for ticket and receipt printers.

Hhgregg is offering online ordering with in-store pickup for Apple products, including iPhone, iPad and iPod models and Apple TV devices.

The move comes just a couple of weeks following the retailer’s preliminary third-quarter results which revealed poor performance in the consumer electronics and wireless categories and were below the company’s expectations.

American Eagle plans to launch the ShopKick shopBeacon iBeacon solution in 100 top-performing American Eagle Outfitters and Aerie stores across the country. shopBeacon is an Apple iBeacon-based presence signal for retailers that offers customers rewards, in a currency called "kicks," for a variety of actions they take as they go about shopping.

Prism Skylabs, a global leading cloud service provider, has hired former Apple executive Cliff Crosbie as SVP of managed services.

Crosbie comes to Prism Skylabs after overseeing Apple’s global preferred reseller program. In his new role, he will be charged with growing Prism’s visual merchandising and auditing services

“I’ve never seen a merchandising or analytics solution as effective as Prism Skylabs,” said Crosbie. “I couldn’t be more excited to join the team.”
 

Guess has unveiled a new mobile app for its customers powered by the MicroStrategy Alert Platform.

The new Guess app, which is available simultaneously on Apple iOS and Android devices, offers a personalized high-interactivity loyalty channel between Guess and its customers through their mobile phones. It merges social loyalty with traditional loyalty by rewarding brand ambassador customers for extending Guess campaigns and promotions through their social networks (Facebook, Twitter, SMS, or email).

Mobile point of sale (mPOS) technology promises to continue to transform the customer’s shopping experience in 2014 and beyond. Gartner forecasts an mPOS market valued at $617 billion with 448 million users by the end of 2016, representing 42% annual growth.

Retail is one of several sectors poised to benefit from mPOS. With that in mind, here are five trends that every retailer needs to be aware of in the space.

Eight-in-10 (77%) consumers would be willing to share their smartphone location data as long as they received enough value in return.

A new study from in-store mobile marketing platform provider Swirl also revealed that consumers are much more likely to entrust their location information to their favorite retailers (65%) than to shopping/deals apps, Google or Facebook.

Amazon.com is the most popular U.S. online retail site when it comes to having Web content shared on Pinterest in the run up to Christmas 2013.

In a study of 10 top US retail sites, images and pages from Amazon.com are being shared most frequently on Pinterest, with Walmart and Apple taking second and third positions, respectively. According to a study conducted by digital marketing software and services specialist Searchmetrics, content from Amazon.com currently generates 16,360 pins per week, Walmart generates 5,778 pins per week and Apple generates 3,871.