Retail

Brisbane, Calif. - bebe stores announded that Jim Wiggett has been named CEO and appointed to the company’s board of directors, effective immediately. He has been serving as interim chief executive since June 2014.  

By Bruce Ernst, Monetate   Consumers weren’t the only ones who were busy browsing gifts during Cyber Week 2014. In fact, the kickoff to this year’s holiday shopping season saw many retailers staying up late to unwrap key customer insights based on the valuable data being generated by online shoppers.  

Wayne, N.J. – Holiday shoppers who are having second thoughts about counting on Santa’s elves to build them toys have a new option. Toys ‘R Us Inc. will offer extended shopping hours in the days leading up to Christmas, while also providing last-minute shoppers with enhanced and expanded "Gifts Made Easy" services.  

London, U.K. – Phone calls may seem obsolete in this text- and online-based age, but U.S. consumers are still making the call when they purchase items. According to a new study from call-based marketing automation company ResponseTap, consumers in the U.S. are more than twice as likely to make a phone call when making a purchase, as opposed to purely transacting online.   

BURLINGTON, Mass. - Demandware, a provider of enterprise cloud commerce solutions, announced that Quiksilver has expanded its relationship with Demandware to roll out the cloud platform on a global scale. The company made the switch from an on-premise solution for improved time to market and to provide a consistent customer experience across multiple brands and geographies, while driving growth.  

New York - Edeka, Germany's largest supermarket company, decided to surprise its customers with some unexpected seasonal cheer. Thirteen hidden cameras caught shoppers’ expressions as the store lights went down and cashiers scanned items in such a way that their registers beeped the right notes of holiday favorite "Jingle Bells.” 

Los Angeles – Three out of four (76%) online buyers are dissatisfied with the strength of credit card and personal information security among retailers. According to a new survey of 6,200 online consumers aross all generations and both genders from Bizrate Insights, a shopper’s own bank is trusted the most with credit card data and personally identifiable information (72%).  

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is aiming last-minute holiday promotions at users of its Cartwheel mobile savings app and customers in need of product delivery or pickup. Cartwheel is offering users 50% off a different toy every day until Dec. 24.