Retail

By Jim Singer, A.T. Kearney, and Ryan Mathews, Black Monk Consulting

Indianapolis -- In what is described as the first iBeacon-wearable integration at retail, Marsh Supermarkets and inMarket have announced the deployment of a closed-loop iBeacon platform that will enable Apple Watch users to receive interactive alerts and other content on their devices based on their proximity to the beacons. The platform will be rolled out throughout Marsh’s 75 stores.

Walgreens is launching a new national campaign highlighting how people are aging well beyond their HIV diagnosis.

The centerpiece of the campaign is a traveling art exhibit, curated in collaboration with the Graying of AIDS, an independent documentary project and educational campaign.

The exhibit provides a glimpse into the lives of older adults living with HIV and will make its first stop in Miami on Jan. 17.

While there were some reported ups and downs over the course of last year’s holiday shopping season, the early takeaway is that the season was, in the end, positive. While we’ll have to wait for hard numbers for more detailed insight, and while definitive conclusions might be a bit much to draw at this point, it does seem to me like the increased length of the ever-expanding holiday shopping season didn’t have any appreciable negative impact.

San Mateo, Calif. -- NetSuite Inc. announced that two fashion and apparel retailers — Journelle, a seller of high-end lingerie and loungewear, and Alton Lane, a maker of men’s custom-tailored clothing — have deployed NetSuite to run their core retail business processes from order management, inventory management, financials, supplier purchasing and customer relationship management (CRM) to marketing — all from within one unified cloud-based business management platform.

New York -- Grocer Heinen’s has teamed with Symphony EYC to adopt customer-driven retailing operations that stretch from shopper, throughout the store and back to the warehouse.

Columbus, Ohio -- Express is lifting its fourth-quarter and full-year profit forecasts, citing a better-than-expected performance at the end of December and beginning of January.

CEO Michael Weiss said that Express Inc. experienced slowing sales during the first three weeks of December, but that its performance has bounced back since.
 
Fourth-quarter same-store sales are now predicted to fall 3%-4%; Express previously forecast a mid to high single-digit decline in the figure.
 

Atlanta -- 400-store French apparel retailer Kiabi has selected Predictix to implement a unified suite of merchandising and supply chain optimization solutions.

Predictix, which harnesses predictive and prescriptive analytics, and the unlimited computing power of the cloud to bring insights into consumer demand, will allow Kiabi to discover a deeper, richer understanding of what drives consumer demand and reach a new level of customer intimacy.