Sales & Marketing

Retailers are extremely aware of the looming Oct. 1 deadline to securely accept payments from chip-enabled, EMV-compliant cards. But according to a new survey of 18,000 U.S. adults, consumers have much lower awareness.

The survey, conducted in late August by POS technology provider Harbortouch, shows that 56% of consumers are unware of what “EMV” or “chip-enabled” mean.

Today’s consumer is driven by an “I want it now” mentality, yet retailers are still not prepared to deliver. Reducing the time it takes an order to arrive at a customer’s home is every retailer’s objective, but while quicker fulfillment makes customers happy, it comes at a cost.

SAP is setting some big goals for a suite of future integrated digital enterprise technologies. The enterprise technology firm wants to transform the relationships companies have with their customers.

San Francisco – Marketers and consumers are both discovering mobile apps in a big way.

According to the second Mobile App Advertising Trends Report from marketing technology provider Kenshoo, marketers increased their investment in mobile apps 293% in June 2015, compared to the same period a year earlier.

This increased investment followed a 346% increase consumer mobile app installs and 32% increase in click-to-install rate.

A red-hot real estate market and sky-high property values have some retailers, including Macy’s and more recently, McDonalds, feeling the pressure to cash in on the value of their real estate assets. How? By spinning off store properties and/or land assets into a REIT and entering into a lease-back deal.

The company, the PGA Tour’s exclusive off-course/off-airport retail partner, has built a business dedicated to providing golf enthusiasts of all levels access to the same technology and expertise that card-carrying Tour pros enjoy. Stores are staffed with teaching professionals and have multiple state-of-the-art swing simulators, practice hitting bays, and large putting greens. There is also an in-house club-making and repair facility.   

Chico’s FAS Inc. may be considering a sale to one of several private equity suitors.

Wayne, N.J. – Toys “R” Us has put an executive from L’Oreal in charge of its human resources.

The toy giant appointed Tim Grace as executive VP, global chief talent officer, effective Sept. 14.

Grace will oversee all global human resources functions, including organizational design, talent acquisition, succession planning, learning, change management and labor and employee relations, as well as compensation and benefits.