Retail

When it comes to domestic divas, Martha Stewart has few rivals, but Ellen DeGeneres is dipping her toe in the water with a new seasonal home collection branded as E.D. On Air.

The popular comedian and talk show host announced the creation of her new lifestyle collection in July called simply E.D. The new seasonal home collection is called E.D. On Air because it was created exclusively for QVC. It will debut on Friday, October 8 when DeGeneres introduces the line live on her show.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Holdings Corp. has named Ronald D. Boire, executive VP/chief merchandising officer of Sears Full Line Stores and Kmart Format, as acting president and CEO of Sears Canada. Boire will leave his role with Sears Holdings and replaces former Sears Canada CEO Douglas Campbell, who the company previously said would leave his post by the end of 2014.  

By Leela Rao-Kataria, GT Nexus    When most people are asked what the busiest holiday for retailers’ is they immediately cite the traditional holiday season. But most consumers don’t realize back-to-school shopping is the second biggest shopping season in the United States. And unlike the winter holidays, back-to-school has an additional challenge for retailers: it’s the longest running holiday season, extending over three months.    

Plug and Play brings together retailers and start-ups who offer specific technology and expertise that can relieve merchants’ pain points. Customer Disruption highlights one of those start-ups in each issue with a brief Q&A. This issue, the spotlight is on Aahlada Chennupati, CEO and co-founder of ProductPlay.   1) What does your company do?  

Whole Foods Market is helping its shoppers make a choice between good, better and best when it comes to the level of growing practices they want to support when purchasing fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Boston –- Between April and June of 2014, the retail sector led all industries in data breaches with 145 million records, or 83% of the total records compromised, costing retailers $195 per record apprehended. In response, Boston Retail Partners has released recommendations for data security best practices.    The recommendations include:  

Philadelphia -- Off-price retailer Century 21 Department Store will open in Philadelphia on Oct. 28, 2014. Century 21 will serve as the anchor tenant of The Gallery, a shopping center undergoing a redevelopment.  

Pittsburgh –- Multi-format food, fuel and pharmacy retailer Giant Eagle Inc. is piloting smart devices from Brickstream for capturing and analyzing in-store data at six stores. Brickstream’s hardware and software solutions deliver the equivalent of “clickstream” analytics for the brick-and-mortar world.