Consumer Electronics

Grapevine, Texas – It’s not something from an episode of the classic black-and-white TV series “The Twilight Zone.” Monsters are coming to a street near you, courtesy of GameStop and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

London – Moms with kids younger than 18 are known to be discerning, and only two retailers made the list of top 10 best perceived brands among these special ladies. According to the latest Brand Index from market research firm YouGov, Amazon.com ranked number two with a score of 58.8, Skechers came in at number eight at 48.1, and Samsung nabbed the number 10 spot at 47.7.

New York -- While most retailers are shrinking their footprints, Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM) is doing just the opposite, opening the nation’s largest home furnishings store. Located in the new 433-acre Grandscape mixed-use development in The Colony, Texas, the two-level store has a whopping 560,000 sq, ft. of selling space (equivalent to about nine football fields). Including its on-site warehouse, the space totals more than 1.8 million sq. ft.

It’s been a month since the announcement of Hal Lawton’s move from Home Depot to eBay, where he will head up eBay North America.

Toronto -- Canadians are not flocking over the border as much as last year, according to a recent cross-border shopping survey by marketing research firm GfK. Deterred by higher US exchange rates, Canadians are less willing to make the drive, despite the wider product selections available stateside.

As retailers increasingly use gamification to drive customer engagement and growth, GameStop is taking the concept to new heights with its latest promotion.

The retailer is teaming up with Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment and Google Maps to turn city streets into monster tracking courses ahead of the May 19 launch of Warner Brothers and CD PROJEKT RED’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

San Francisco – Retail sales in several top retail verticals fell despite increased shopper traffic in April 2015. According to a report from Wi-Fi location analytics provider Euclid, early Easter did not cause a drop-off in visits to the store, but consumer caution around spending tax refunds prevented a commensurate sales boost.

Euclid estimates sales growth in the following retail verticals of:

• 1.1% decline year-over-year in general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other (GAFO) retail sales.

The EMV liability shift occurs Oct 2015 and the United States expects six million to eight million EMV cards to be deployed by the end of the year. Payment solutions giant Ingenico Group believes many merchants will not be ready. (Ingenico Group is an active member of both the Smart Card Alliance and the EMV Migration Forum, which are cross industry organizations focused on easing the U.S. EMV implementation.)

Based on his expertise in EMV transitions, Ingenico Group North America president Thierry Denis offers the following observations and advice: