Target, Inc.

Toronto — Hudson’s Bay Company announced the appointment of Jon K. Nordeen to the position of CIO, effective November 2014.
  Nordeen joins HBC with more than 25 years of information systems and management experience. Most recently, he served at Kohl’s Department Stores in several roles including executive VP merchandise planning, executive VP administration, and executive VP CIO.
 

Minneapolis — Target Corp. gained some momentum going into the holiday season with a third quarter that beat both Wall Street and internal expectations as sales as its U.S. stores exceeded estimates and its troubled Canadian division showed signs of improvement. Its results were also driven by increased promotional activity. This was Target’s first quarter under the leadership of CEO Brian Cornell, who replaced Gregg Steinhafel in August.   

It took a heightened level of promotional activity to drive marginally better than expected third quarter same store sales growth at Target’s U.S. stores while losses in Canada were less severe than the prior year.

Some of the biggest names in the retail industry have partnered with a new online shopping and fundraising platform called iMyne, which aims to make it easy for consumers to earn money and give to their favorite causes after shopping online.

Like other rewards sites, imyne.com gives shoppers the option of earning cash back. But it also allows them to send their cash back to charitable causes. Top retailers such as Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Target, Sears, Home Depot, Gap, Best Buy, Saks, Zappos and more have all signed up as retail partners.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. has gone live with several new in-store navigation features. The features include new interactive maps along with enhanced shopping lists and search capabilities.   Leveraging Point Inside technology, Target customers can use the app to more easily build shopping lists, find product locations and determine item availability at local stores. New features include:  

New functionality such as interactive maps, enhanced list-making and search capabilities are designed to make it easier than ever to shop Target.

Working with shopper engagement solutions provider Point Inside, Target has upgraded its mobile capabilities ahead of a holiday season in which shoppers will be more digitally engaged than ever.

Minneapolis -- Promising an “Amazon-like experience” in its stores, Target Corp. has acquired a Pittsburgh technology firm that says its software platform brings "an Amazon-like shopping experience" to in-store customers.   Target and Powered Analytics co-founder Collin Otis have confirmed the deal but have not disclosed the terms. The firm will reported remain headquartered in Pittsburgh.  

Bentonville, Ark. -- Following the lead of some other retailers, Walmart is spreading out Black Friday beyond the day after Thanksgiving.

 

New York -- Amid a public fight for Thanksgiving weekend foot traffic, retailers are also battling behind the scenes to prepare for peak-season e-commerce orders. According to a new Kurt Salmon survey, retailers will reduce their processing and shipping time frames for multi-item orders by almost two days this holiday season.  

Minneapolis -- Best Buy has joined the ranks of retailers that have moved up the time their stores will open on Thanksgiving Day. The consumer electronics giant said Tuesday that some 1,000 of its stores will open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, which is one hour earlier than last year. The stores will close at 1 a.m. Friday before reopening at 8 a.m. on November 28 (Black Friday) and close at 10 p.m. that day.