Retail

Washington, D.C. - The National Retail Federation told a congressional panel on April 16 that the retail industry is committed to safeguarding and protecting consumer data and information from cybercriminals and hackers. Tom Litchford, NRF VP for retail technologies, testified before a field hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies, where he outlined specific steps that the nation’s retailers are pursuing and implementing to identify, prevent and combat cyber attacks.

Research Triangle Park, N.C. -- ChannelAdvisor Digital Marketing now offers support for Google Merchant Promotions so retailers can advertise special offers within Google product listing ads, and ChannelAdvisor’s new Portfolio Bidder predicts optimal bids to help maximize revenue for online retailers and manufacturers.  

New York -- Bang & Olufsen unveiled its first newly redesigned store concept in North America, at the new Madison Avenue location in New York City. The 1,400-sq.-ft. store is designed to evoke a true sensory experience and demonstrate Bang & Olufsen's commitment to providing extraordinary consumer experiences.  

Other locations in New York City will adopt the new design, as well as a handful of additional locations across the United States next fiscal year.

San Francisco — Mobile shopping platform ShopSavvy, has enhanced its AdOns advertising network to support iBeacon integration. The upgrade allows ShopSavvy AdOns partners to run more targeted in-store contextual ads.  

Corpus Christi, Texas -- Susser Holdings opened two new Stripes convenience stores during the first quarter of fiscal 2014 and acquired 47 convenience stores at the end of January 2014 that are currently operating under the Sac-N-Pac brand. The company has acquired one additional convenience store to date in the second quarter, and currently has 17 under construction.

New York – PriceGrabber and StellaService are launching a partnership where PriceGrabber will display StellaService's online retailer ratings and customer service performance data on PriceGrabber.com. In addition, PriceGrabber will act as a distribution partner for StellaService to its network of digital publishers.

Cheshunt, U.K. – Philip Clarke, CEO of leading U.K. grocery and general merchandise retailer Tesco plc is publicly resisting calls for his resignation following a 6% decline in annual profits and 3% quarterly drop in U.K. same-store sales. Tesco has reported falling profits for two consecutive years following 20 years of continual profit growth.

By Rodney Mason, CMO, parago

Today, consumers have more information sources to help them make purchasing decisions. Smartphones, tablets, social media and the Internet — combined with traditional shopping channels like magazines and direct mail — means that deal-finding and comparison-shopping methods are almost always at consumers’ fingertips. As a result, shoppers are making their purchases faster.