Sales & Marketing

Charming Charlie wants to make sure Web customers get the same attentive service as shoppers at its 350-plus stores.

To that end, the jewelry and accessories retailer has deployed the Yottaa ContextIntelligence cloud-based application acceleration and security platform to optimize, accelerate, and secure its online retail environment. The platform is being leveraged alongside Magento Enterprise.

An incentive program is in the works in California that would make it easier for food retailers to prevent harmful refrigerant emissions. If approved, the Refrigerant Incentive Program will be the beginning of the end of supermarkets’ struggles with endless refrigerant phase outs, regulations, and government refrigerant dictates.

Where Does the Money Come From?

Rudolph E. Milian, former senior staff VP of the International Council of Shopping Centers and a leading retail real estate development executive, has launched Woodcliff Realty Advisors LLC, a full-service management consultancy that brings together an elite group of retail and real estate professionals and experts to serve shopping center companies, retailers, commercial real estate organizations, communities and investors worldwide.

Office Depot continues to hope its merger with Staples secures approval from U.S. regulators, but in the meantime the performance of its retail operations is looking much better should it remain an independent company.

Office Depot’s North American retail footprint did shrink to 1,564 locations at the end of the year after the company closed a total of 181 stores, including 56 in the fourth quarter. Thinning the herd a bit helped the overall profitability of Office Depot’s largest division during the period ended Dec. 26 even though sales declined.

Hudson's Bay Company says online sales were particularly strong in the fourth quarter and contributed to the company's same-store sales growth of 11% for the period.

The Canadian firm and parent company of the Saks Fifth Avenue banners said that for the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31:

• Same-store sales grew 11%;
• The Department Store Group (DSG) had a same store sales increase of 4%;
• Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th same-store sales increased 2%;
• Saks Fifth Avenue same-store sales decreased 1.2%;

Sharing detailed data with vendors is an idea that has been around since the 1990s, and is gaining new life at Ahold USA Inc.

Ahold, parent company of supermarkets Giant Landover, Stop & Shop New England, Stop & Shop New York Metro, Giant Carlisle, and online grocery Peapod, has partnered with Retail Solutions Inc. (RSI) to introduce shared enterprise business processes with vendors. Ahold USA has leveraged RSI’s data platform and collaboration tools to better align its business goals and daily priorities with its vendor partners.

When it comes to making online customers happy, one well-known name stands at the top.

Fourth quarter data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) shows Amazon.com led all online retailers with a score of 83.out of 100. Compared to the prior year, overall Internet retail customer satisfaction slipped 2.4% to a score of 80 out of 100. This still leads all other retail categories in the Index.

Boston has long been known as a town that likes to imbibe now and then, and online grocery delivery service Instacart is helping to spread the cheer.

Instacart is partnering with local omnichannel liquor retailer Vinodivino to offer Boston customers same-day delivery of wine, liquor, and beer. Vinodivino is now part of the Instacart marketplace, meaning Boston residents can order alcohol online from Vinodivino through the Instacart site or app and get alcohol delivered in as little as one hour.