Retail

Bitcoin, the nearly anonymous, peer-to-peer online currency, has been getting attention lately. The attention has not been necessarily positive, as bitcoin was the preferred currency of the recently closed down Silk Road “darknet” site that served as a virtual global marketplace for narcotics and other illegal goods.

Supply chain and reverse logistics provider Genco has named Laurie Barkman as the new president and CEO of Genco Marketplace, Genco's wholly owned liquidation subsidiary.

Barkman has served as Genco Marketplace's chief operating officer since July 2013. In her new role, Barkman will be responsible for driving expansion into new liquidation markets and developing a world-class team.

Location: Downtown Erie, Pa.

Size: 196,728 sq. ft.

Developer: Existing property acquired in August 2013 by Phillips Edison-ARC Shopping Center REIT Inc.

Major tenants: Giant Eagle, Panera Bread, The UPS Store, GNC, Wells Fargo, Eat’n Park

SuperSaturday raises IT awareness and funds for kids in need

Of the many reasons retail IT professionals attend the annual National Retail Federation (NRF) Convention & Expo each January in New York City, keeping current with all the latest industry topics and trends is surely at the top. Each year, RetailROI independently offers SuperSaturday, a one-day event held the Saturday before the official Sunday kickoff to the NRF Convention.

New York - Companies seeking to get closer to their customers simply need to remember and acknowledge their birthdays. A new online survey conducted by analytics and marketing technology provider Fulcrum finds that nearly three-out-of-four (74%) consumers who received birthday messages from a company they do business with thought more positively of the company afterward.

Big Lots has added three general merchandise managers as the company continues realigning the merchandising organization into three customer-centric categories: food and consumables, furniture and home décor and seasonal, toys and electronics.

Optimizing retail store portfolios and optimizing shopping center portfolios seem like two different things. In fact, the two tasks have similarities.

“To retailers, optimization is getting store deployment across the marketplace right,” explained Mike Makinen, COO with MPI, Mall Properties Inc., New York City. “We have a similar strategy. We have a mix of retailers within our shopping center portfolio, and we try to optimize the assortment of retailers, restaurants and service tenants within each center.”

New technology makes paying the bill easier than ever for customers

Logic dictates that the easier it is for customers to pay for goods, the more likely they are to purchase them. Long lines, fumbling for cash or a payment card, and even the simple act of waiting for an associate to ring up a sale at a traditional fixed POS terminal are all impediments to converting sales from busy and distracted consumers.