eCommerce

St. Louis – Famous Footwear free app for iPhone and Android. The new app offers shoppers instant access to savings they can earn through Famous Footwear’s Rewards program, as well as exclusive mobile discounts and offers. The app allows users to plan, shop and track their purchases, and redeem their Rewards points from their mobile device.

By Joe Gillespie, president and CEO of Zoove

The online shopping experience has many benefits: access to unlimited inventory, quick search capabilities, and overall convenience. But it lacks one key element: human interaction. Before making a purchase, consumers often want to try out products — to see and touch them, or get a second opinion. In fact, a recent IBM survey reveals that nearly nine out of ten consumers still finalize their purchases in-store.

Mahwah, N.J. -- The websites for the top 500 U.S. retailers are still too slow and continue to get slower – pages have slowed down 14% since summer 2013, and are 16% slower than fall 2012, according to a study by Radware.

Casual footwear manufacturer Crocs has appointed former Walmart executive Greg Sullivan as the company’s general manager for the Americas region. The region encompasses North, Central and South America.

In his new role, Sullivan will be responsible for managing the region's day-to-day operations, including overseeing sales, marketing, finance and human resources functions, as well as the region's wholesale, internet and direct-to-consumer channels.

Los Angeles -- Sport Chalet, Inc. has elected Miki R. Berardelli, chief marketing officer for Tory Burch, to the company's board of directors. Berardelli has more than 20 years of marketing and e-commerce experience.

As chief marketing officer for Tory Burch, she oversees global marketing, public relations and e-commerce. Prior to joining Tory Burch in 2009, Berardelli spent eight years at Ralph Lauren as the senior VP of marketing. In addition, Berardelli is serving her second term as board chairman of Shop.org and is on the board of Giggle.com.

Rogers, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores is focused on near-term execution to grow its same-store U.S. sales, improve returns in Walmart International and leverage expenses for the full year, company president and CEO Mike Duke said Tuesday at the company’s 20th annual meeting for the investment community.
    

New York — More than half (54%) of shoppers who used a coupon during purchase would not have made the purchase without the deal; in addition, 55% of these shoppers were inspired to shop because they received a coupon. Those are some of takeaways from a recent survey by Tada.com, which offers deals and coupons from more than 5,000 retailers.

Walmart will be opening more small stores next year and beyond as the company pursues a vision of omnichannel retailing that it contends no other company is capable of executing.

Walmart U.S. president and CEO Bill Simon on Tuesday morning shared a message of physical and digital convergence involving an acceleration of smaller format stores and continued advancement of the retailer’s digital capabilities. He suggested multiple times during his presentation that the company has reached an inflection point in terms of building a next generation retail enterprise.