Sales & Marketing

Amazon gave some very special visitors a tour of its top secret drone testing laboratory in Cambridge, England.  

eBay’s newest furniture destination looks like a page right out of Architectural Digest.  

Fast-casual eatery throws its hat into the mobile app arena.   Eager to take advantage of mobility, Shake Shack introduced a mobile app that includes an ordering platform. Designed on Apple’s iOS platform, the Shack App invites guests to place orders through their smart phone, and pick up meals at its “Midtown East Shack” in New York City. This single location test will be ongoing.   

For retail tenants and landlords alike, use and exclusive use clauses, which refer to the terms written into a lease that dictates what is and is not permitted by both parties, are a critically important part of the tenant-landlord relationship and lease negotiation process. It is also a potentially contentious subject that will not only affect a retailer’s operational specifics, but can have a profound impact on the bottom line.   

It was in 1983 that Steve Lemmon and David Rubenzer brought on Ray Barton as a partner to franchise the cheap haircut concept they started on the University of Minnesota campus. They chose well. Barton’s wife Mary Lou was one of the first franchisees, and Barton himself remains chairman of the board as the company celebrates the opening of its 4,000th franchise in Flat Rock, Michigan.   “The company continues to grow with happy franchisees who open multiple salons,” said Great Clips CEO Rhoda Olsen.  

More than 200 million Americans will shop online this year. Statistically, nearly 10 million of those shoppers will be visually impaired, more than 10 million will have a hearing impairment and more than four million of those will have severe limitations to their dexterity. For these shoppers, many goods and services offered online might be out of their reach.   

Walgreens has joined the ranks of retailers working to get merchandise ordered online into customers’ hands faster.    The drugstore chain has launched a ship-to-store program that offers free shipping to a Walgreens or Duane Reade store for orders made on the chain’s website and mobile app. No minimum purchase is required.    

As the loyalty landscape heats up, TJX Companies is renewing its existing program to remain competitive.   The off-price retailer announced a multi-year renewal of its partnership with Synchrony, a move that will continue to support financing for its five-year-old Rewards Credit Card program.