Apple, Inc.

San Bruno, Calif. -- YouTube is reportedly challenging the Vine video app from Twitter and Instagram video app from Facebook with its own new video app called MixBit. As reported by the New York Times, MixBit allows users to record up to 16 seconds of video (compared to 15 seconds for Instagram and six seconds for Vine) on their smartphones.

In one of the stranger situations in retail right now, J.C. Penney is defending itself against charges by activist investor Bill Ackman that it’s not moving fast enough to hire a full time CEO and remedy a situation that Ackman created when the guy he picked nearly destroyed the company.

Scanbuy, Inc. released a quarterly trend report showing continued rapid growth of QR code and UPC mobile barcode scanning traffic. The report shows more than 21 million scans processed in the second quarter of 2013 — good news for retailers who are upgrading their mobile capabilities.

Walmart.com is already a large, fast growing and dynamic organization, but global e-commerce president and CEO Neil Ashe is intent on executing an integrated vision of commerce that no one else has — or can.
 

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has some pretty vivid memories of back- to-school shopping: getting dragged out alongside my mother to buy new outfits and a few No. 2 pencils. Now, it seems like everyone in the retail world is finding a way to join the party.

Sales of 31.2 million iPhones and 14.6 million iPads during third quarter ended June 29 enabled Apple to generate sales of $35.3 billion, but lower prices led to gross margin contraction and a nearly $2 billion decline in profits.

By Lee Peterson, wdpartners.com

Across-the-board payroll cuts have rarely delivered margins long-term for retailers. Crude cuts are more than misguided today, but a dangerous strategy for stores in the fight for survival against Amazon.

Given the choice of shopping at only one retailer for the rest of their lives, millennial parents chose Walmart over several other popular retailers.
The study of the millenials, those age 25 to 34, was conducted by Vision Critical, and not surprisingly showed the demographic group changed purchasing habits and behaviors after starting a family.