Sales & Marketing

Ace Hardware Corp. is helping independent members of its retail cooperative manage increasingly complex labor regulations.   The hardware chain is leveraging the cloud-based Kronos Workforce Central suite of workforce management solutions. In addition to better management of rising labor law compliance requirements, Ace expects the deployment to also enable improvement of store productivity and increase of associate engagement.  

Just a few short years ago, many people predicted that physical stores would all be replaced by pure-play e-commerce sites.  By now, they thought, brick-and-mortar would be a thing of the past. Though we’ve seen some physical stores close, we’ve also seen some traditionally online retailers open storefronts. The demise of the physical store was greatly overestimated.   

Retailers are focused on getting leaner.   That’s according to a new study by Accenture, in which 88% of retailers said they were focused on cost reduction to free up funds necessary to reinvest in growth initiatives.  As for where they are those cost savings, the top three areas were expanding into new geographies (cited by 60%), digital technologies (54%) and enhancing customer experiences (52%).  

Consumers who purchase at off-price retail outlets are a growing group.   According to the latest Checkout Tracking data from global information company The NPD Group, two-thirds of all consumers shop at off-price retailers. Checkout Tracking analysis, which analyzes receipts and follows consumer purchasing behavior, also shows off-price buyers represent 75% of apparel purchases across all retail channels.  

A Sam’s Club location opening in Columbia, South Carolina, will be among the first to offer a new mobile payment option.  

A Supervalu executive will be departing the company, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The company’s executive VP merchandising, marketing, retail and pharmacy Mark Van Buskirk’s employment will end effective July 16, the filing says.    In the interim, the company is evaluating a succession plan and Van Buskirk’s functional areas will report to Supervalu executive VP, COO and CFO Bruce Besanko.  

Starbucks Corp. is growing its store portfolio on a couple of different fronts.   The company plans to open stores under a new banner, called Starbucks-Reserve only, that will have a decidedly upscale twist. The brand will sell premium, small lot reserve coffee in a store space that is about twice the size of a typical Starbucks, zachs.com reported, and feature more of a café atmosphere.   

Another July, another Amazon Prime Day. With the e-tail leader already confirming this retail “holiday” will be back for a third time next July, let’s take a look back at the 2016 edition.   While a lot went well for Amazon during Prime Day this year, we may as well start with the biggest blunder. Namely, the widespread checkout issues that occurred during the morning hours. A glitch caused some U.S. and U.K. shoppers to have difficulties loading items into their shopping carts and/or making purchases.