Retail

Isis, a mobile commerce joint venture created by AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, has unveiled its upgraded Isis Mobile Wallet, which allows customers to pay at contactless payment terminals directly from their smartphones.

Walmart managed to achieve its third quarter profit target despite reporting weaker than expected U.S. sales which prompted the company to issue a tepid outlook for fourth quarter sales at Walmart U.S. stores and Sam’s Club units.

Mall of America has unveiled an Enhanced Service Portal that aims to improve the digital and physical shopping experience by integrating all the communication channels through which consumers contact Mall of America into a unified service.

O’Connor Capital Partners, a privately owned, independent real estate investment, development and management firm, has named Glenn J. Rufrano as chairman and CEO.

Rufrano was a founding partner of the O’Connor Group, the firm’s original incarnation, and has served on the board since 2010. He has also acquired a full partnership stake in the firm.  

Nearly 60% of global respondents said that loyalty programs were available where they shopped, and of those, 84% said they were more likely to visit those retailers, according to a new study by Nielsen.

Staples Advantage, the business-to-business division of Staples, has launched a new mobile app that lets clients order anything they need for their businesses from wherever they are.

The new app is available for iOS and Android. Consumer feedback was taken into account in the app’s development.

Users can search, shop and ship on-the-go, create shopping lists of frequently purchased items for smoother reordering, scan to automatically replenish supplies, utilize one-click order approval and view order status and package tracking.

Facing an increasingly competitive retail landscape, Canadian retailer Loblaw Cos. posted a slight lift in retail sales but, due to incremental margin investment in the back half of the year, lowered its earnings growth expectations for 2013.

However, company executives are optimistic as the company remains focused on investing in what it refers to as the “customer proposition” and looks forward to its acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart.

Whirlpool has promoted Joseph Liotine to president of the company's U.S. operations and appointed him to the corporation's executive committee. Liotine is currently VP of marketing for the company's North American region.