Mass Merchant

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart is offering an online gift card exchange called CardCash.com that will offer consumers up to 97% of the face value of another retailer’s gift card in the form of a Wal-Mart e-gift card. The retailer has set up a site where customers can enter the card number, PIN and some basic personal information so it can verify card balance before making an offer.  

Amazon is poised to set new sales records in 2015 after using the allure of free shipping to expose 10 million people to the wide range of benefits that are part of its $99 Prime service.

The key benefit of Prime is unlimited free two day shipping on roughly 20,000 items so offering a trial version of Prime during the time sensitive holiday season could prove to be an excellent tactic to bolster the ranks of paid Prime membership and drive long term loyalty.

Bentonville, Ark. – Minimum wage increases scheduled to take effect in 24 states and Washington, D.C. will affect employees at more than 1,400 Wal-Mart stores and 200 Sam’s Club in the U.S. According to CNN, Wal-Mart said it has less than 6,000 employees currently earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and has already been planning to pay all employees more than the federal minimum wage.  

Ann Arbor, Mich. - Watch out Amazon, QVC is at your back—at least when it comes to  customer satisfaction.  

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Imran Joona, executive VP of online, marketing, pricing and financial services at Sears Holding Corp., is leaving the company. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Sears said Joona resigned Dec, 17 and will leave in February 2015 to pursue a new opportunity.  

New York – When it came to fulfilling holiday deliveries, Apple, Dell, Nordstrom and Zappos stood out among other major competitors. According to research from StellaService, all four provided an aggressive guarantee that orders placed by Dec. 23 would be delivered by Christmas and managed to meet that promise in all regions of the U.S.  

Female executives make their mark on the world of retail IT

It’s no secret that neither the retail industry nor the technology industry has exactly achieved parity when it comes to granting women access to top-level decision-making positions. According to a report from IIC Partners, 64% of retailers said their senior executive team was less than 25% female — despite the fact that women drive a whopping 85% of all consumer purchases.

Women are famously underrepresented in technology.

New York - Retail sales in the United States increased 5.5% from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve, fueled by demand for women's apparel, jewelry and dining out, according to MastyerCard Advisors. Spending Pulse holiday report. Consumer electronics, which many industry analysts had predicted would be among the strongest categories this holiday season, was actually among the weakest, according to the report, with sales "basically flat" from Black Friday to Dec. 24 and in negative territory starting on Nov. 1.