Retail

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Sam's Club has launched a new program with San Francisco, Calif.-based warranty provider SquareTrade and other partners to offer feature-packed mobile phone protection plans for Sam's Club members. Priced at $59 for standard phones and $99 for smart phones, the protection packages include:

• Two-year protection for normal failures including battery replacement

• Accidental damage protection including full liquid immersion with a $49 deductible

An analysis of retailers’ ad circulars from throughout 2012 conducted by ECRM shows some familiar names dominate the list of top promoted brands and reveals some interesting movements among others.

The ECRM report shows use of circular print ads grew by 5.5% in 2011 despite increased activity overall in the areas of online, mobile and social.

SAN BRUNO, Calif. — Wal-Mart Stores has named a replacement for Eduardo Castro-Wright, who announced his pending retirement in September. The company announced that Neil Ashe is the new president and CEO of the company's global e-commerce business, effective Jan. 16. Castro-Wright will assist in the transition.

Ashe is replacing Eduardo Castro-Wright who announced his pending retirement in September and will assist in the transition.

DULUTH, Ga. — NCR announced Monday the introduction of a point-of-sale system that will allow independent retailers to manage transactions, track sales and inventory, process credit cards and market to customers on both touch-screen terminals and Apple mobile devices.

The system is a cloud-based platform that NCR said would give independent retailers a multichannel "sell anywhere" capability.

NEW YORK — Retail industry sales are expected to rise, albeit not at the same pace as 2011, according to the National Retail Federation.

Retail industry sales will rise 3.4% to $2.53 trillion, NRF said, compared with a pace of 4.7% in the year-ago period. The expected slowdown in consumer spending, NRF said, will be influenced by a number of factors, including stalled unemployment rate and lack of newly-created jobs. But despite the lower projection, the industry is expected to garner stronger numbers than other industries, NRF said.

DULUTH, Ga. — The U.S. division of an Amsterdam-based supermarket conglomerate has tapped NCR for a solution to manage the stores' offers and promotions to customers.

NEW YORK — Retailers that are looking to access their store sales and foot traffic now can do so anywhere and anytime with a new, free mobile application from ShopperTrak.

ShopperTrak said its new mobile app provides retailers with remote access to the following data &mdashh; key metrics, hourly performance and ShopperTrak Power Hours — which are displayed in an easy-to-navigate graph enhanced by charts. Additionally, the app also provides free weekly foot traffic reports for five major U.S. markets for non-ShopperTrak customers.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS/pharmacy's ExtraCare Rewards program now enables ExtraCare cardholders to send their quarterly ExtraBucks Rewards to their ExtraCare cards, eliminating the need for shoppers to carry paper rewards into their local CVS/pharmacy.