eCommerce

Bentonville, Ark. – Walmart  is testing a concept where shoppers order their groceries online, schedule a pick-up time, and then pick up their order at the Walmart Pick-up Grocery depot in as little as two hours without having to leave their car, according to local CBS affiliate KFSM-TV 5News. Shoppers also can schedule a pick-up three weeks in advance. The pilot Pick-Up Grocery location is in the chain’s hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.
 

Just a little more than a month after Supervalu announced a data breach, the company has confirmed a second malware attack on its payment systems.

On Aug. 14, Supervalu announced that it had experienced a criminal intrusion into the portion of its computer network that processes payment card transactions at some of its retail food stores, including some of its associated stand-alone liquor stores, but not including its Save-A-Lot stores.

Evansville, Ind. – Shoe Carnival Inc. has partnered with EBay Enterprise to implement a new omnichannel operational foundation based on EBay Enterprise modular solutions, including retail order management, payments, fraud protection, ship-from-store, and customer care. The integrated technology and services will provide a secure engine to accept payments, drive down fraud rates and consolidate inventory across many of Shoe Carnival’s stores to increase product assortment, while lowering fulfillment transit time and expense.

Port Washington, N.Y. – Spending during the total back-to-school season (nine weeks ending Sept. 6, 2014) on traditional supplies increased 2% from 2013, with e-commerce acting as a key catalyst at more than 20% growth during the same time period. According to new data from The NPD Group Inc., most back-to-school shopping occurs at retail brick-and-mortar stores (88%), but 2014 online sales claimed an estimated $33 million previously held by brick-and-mortar retailers.

London – Amazon.com ranks first in end-to end customer experience across key digital channels including websites, mobile sites and apps. According to the latest EChannel Retail Benchmark report from EDigitalResearch, Amazon tops the benchmark study due to their core multichannel functionality, especially across the search and purchase sections of the customer journey.

Walgreens posted fourth-quarter sales of $19.1 billion, representing an increase of 6.2% compared to the year-ago period, while sales for the fiscal 2014 ended Aug. 31 increased 5.8% to a record $76.4 billion.
 

By R.J. Carver, Corporate Development Associate, Plug and Play Tech Center

New York  -- The outlook for retail in the Northeast remains quite positive, with demand from national, local and franchise companies across a broad range of categories, according to Levin Management.