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Minneapolis – Target Corp. is making a big online push for the holidays, including expanding its in-store pick-up program for products ordered online to all of its U.S. stores by Nov. 1 (the service is now available in about half of the chain’s locations). And for the first time, Target will promote the concept of Cyber Week, with an ad campaign Dec. 1 through Dec. 3 that focuses on Cyber Week deals including Cyber Monday.

Palo Alto, Calif. -- PunchTab, an omni-channel loyalty and engagement platform, announced that Arby’s Restaurant Group, Cosi and Bareburger have adopted PunchTab’s technology, and are benefitting by offering rewards to customers across multiple channels. In fact, research shows, customers are 2.5 times more likely to buy when engaged on multiple channels.

Gillette has kicked off its official partnership with Movember by inviting men and women to join Team Gillette, and enlisted Kate Upton as team captain.

The star-studded lineup of Movember supporters also includes Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, New England Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola and New England Revolution defender Kevin Alston.

Hackettstown, N.J. – Custom couponing app Photopon is releasing version 2 of its iOS app, which lets consumers select nearby deals, attach a personal photo and write a message to create a personalized coupon that can be shared through the app, email, text messages or social networking sites.

New York - Despite having more data and insights into consumer desires and preferences, companies in the U.S. have failed to meaningfully improve customer satisfaction or reverse rising switching rates among their customers. As a result, there is a potential $1.3 trillion of revenue at play in the U.S. market represented by the ‘switching economy’, according to new research released by Accenture.

Plano, Texas – J.C. Penney Co. has reportedly been defending itself against anonymous allegations made on Twitter. According to Bloomberg, J.C. Penney recently had to publicly deny tweets saying the company had hired a bankruptcy attorney and no longer had Canadian credit.

Kohl’s is the latest department store to announce that it will open its doors at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, as it kicks off its Black Friday event earlier than ever.  

Stores will be open for 28 hours straight, from 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 28 through midnight Friday nationwide.

eBay has introduced a set of new features that make browsing and buying on the site a more personalized experience. The company is also accelerating its efforts in local commerce and plans to extend its eBay Now delivery service to 25 markets by the end of 2014, including Chicago.

Despite having more data and insights into consumer desires and preferences, companies in the U.S. have failed to meaningfully improve customer satisfaction or reverse rising switching rates among their customers. As a result, there is a potential $1.3 trillion of revenue at play in the U.S. market represented by the ‘switching economy,’ according to new research released by Accenture.

I have now been in my role as senior editor of Chain Store Age, specializing in retail IT coverage, for six months. Beyond being surprised at how quickly the past 180 days have gone by and grateful at how welcoming the industry has been to me, I also can’t help but be amazed at how much retail IT has changed since I was last actively involved in covering this field in 2006.