Target, Inc.

For the retailing industry, 2015 was another year of seismic shifts as merchants continued to keep pace with the evolving digital landscape. It was also a busy year of executive comings and goings. Here is my pick of industry executives — all new to their positions — to keep an eye on in 2016.

Lists are a good way to start a debate, depending on who is included or left off, and that is sure to be the case with a newly released compilation of the 25 individuals the National Retail Federation Foundation has included on the 2016’s List of People Shaping Retail’s Future.

Marsh Supermarkets, a regional grocer with 73 stores in Indiana and Ohio, needs to know its customers especially well to compete with larger supermarket chains.

To that end, Indianapolis-based Marsh is partnering with targeted marketing software vendor inStream to provide personalized, targeted offers on the front of consumer receipts. InStream drives customer engagement and sales via personalized targeting based on customer-specific purchase data.

Chain Store Age’s annual SPECS conference is the must-attend event for retail and restaurant executives involved in the design, construction, and maintenance of stores. This year’s show — to be held March 13-15, 2016, at the Hilton Anatole, Dallas — is shaping up as one of the best ever, with presentations by Target, Under Armour and The Container Store to name but a few.

Janna Potts has been named chief stores officer at Target, filling a position occupied for the past five years by Tina Tyler.

Target elevated Potts to the role of executive VP and chief stores officer, reporting to COO John Mulligan, after she previously served as senior VP of human resources focused on stores and distribution. Potts is a Target veteran who joined the company’s former Mervyn’s division in 1989. During her 27 year career she held leadership roles in stores, operations and human resources, according to the company.

The New Year is here, and it’s time to make annual resolutions. When it comes to their IT activities, retailers should resolve to make improvements in the following three areas.

Innovation
The days of IT being responsible for “keeping the lights on” are long over. Enterprise systems are still required to perform basic but crucial tasks such as finance and HR, but any retailer looking to compete in 2016 needs to look far past the boundaries of simple task automation.

The New Year is here, and it’s time to make annual resolutions. When it comes to their IT activities, retailers should resolve to make improvements in the following three areas.

Innovation
The days of IT being responsible for “keeping the lights on” are long over. Enterprise systems are still required to perform basic but crucial tasks such as finance and HR, but any retailer looking to compete in 2016 needs to look far past the boundaries of simple task automation.

Some of the retail industry’s most innovative, influential and accomplished leaders passed away in 2015. The following is a look at some of those who made a difference and the impact they had on retail.

The following list is by no means exhaustive or intended in any way rank those who passed based on their accomplishments. Rather, the goal is to present in chronological order some of the most noteworthy individuals whose departure came to the attention of Retailing Today and recognize their accomplishments one more time.

Retailers and hospitality enterprises have a weak point unique to their business – the point of sale (POS) device. Despite significant investment in security, it’s still too easy for cybercriminals to access corporate networks via POS.

POS devices handle most of the payment card transactions around the world for retailers, restaurants, hotels, grocers, and gas stations. Because these systems are highly interconnected and accessed by numerous employees and other devices, they remain a highly lucrative target for organized cybercrime.

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