Sales & Marketing

The omnichannel experience continues to raise the bar on the customer experience at Office Depot — all while taking a toll on labor.  

The Chinese e-commerce giant had a very merry holiday as its December quarter sales surged 54% year-over-year (YoY).   Alibaba’s sales hit $7.7 billion for the three months ended on Dec. 31, 2016, exceeding analysts’ expectation of $7.3 billion. The increase is also prompting the retailer to “adjust up our 2017 fiscal year revenue guidance from 48% to 53% year-over-year growth,” said Maggie Wu, CFO of Alibaba Group.   

An historic department store building that closed its doors and has been empty for 30 years — long enough for a tree to start growing inside it — has been given a brand new lease on life.  

Walmart made sweeping changes to its e-commerce organization for the second time since it acquired online retailer Jet.com and appointed company founder Marc Lore as head of its own e-commerce division. The latest move, announced in a memo to Walmart associates on Jan. 13, further consolidates the retail giant’s online properties, and strengthens Lore’s influence on the chain’s digital strategy as it faces-off with Amazon.    

Target Corp. is entering the mobile payments arena.       Following similar moves by such competitors as Walmart and Kohl’s, the discounter plans to introduce mobile payment features to one or more of its own apps, according to a report by Recode.   

Every year after the holidays the same topics seem to dominate media coverage of the retail industry. The numbers are in, who’s closing stores? Who’s going out of business? Who are this year’s casualties in the great Clicks vs. Bricks War? This focus on post-holiday attrition is part of a larger conversation about the future of retail, one often tinged by notes of panic, dire predictions, and dramatic pronouncements such as: Online retail is damaging brick-and-mortar. Malls are dead! Retailers are shuttering hundreds of stores! 

Cinemark and XD will be upgrading all 16 of its auditoriums at CooperTowne Center in Somerdale, New Jersey.    The renovated theaters will include electric-powered, oversized recliners, and movie-goers will be able to reserve them ahead of time via computer or smartphone. XD theaters feature wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling screen with enhanced JBL sound systems.  

Luxury Brand Holdings, parent company of Ross-Simons and Sidney Thomas, has appointed James M. Speltz as president.    Speltz will join the company’s board and oversee all business activities. Most recently, he was COO for Teikametrics, a software and service provider to Amazon.com third-party merchants.