Sales & Marketing

A much anticipated acceleration of small format Walmart stores failed to materialize on Wednesday when the retailer announced plans to curtail domestic new store growth in 2016.

By Leela Rao-Kataria, GT Nexus    When most people are asked what the busiest holiday for retailers’ is they immediately cite the traditional holiday season. But most consumers don’t realize back-to-school shopping is the second biggest shopping season in the United States. And unlike the winter holidays, back-to-school has an additional challenge for retailers: it’s the longest running holiday season, extending over three months.    

Fifty Best Buy stores nationwide have launched new interactive departments branded as, “The Intel Experience.”

What makes the initiative interesting is that Intel is a brand that powers many consumers electronics devices, but it isn’t a brand consumer directly seek out the way they do Samsung, Apple or LG.

Boston –- Between April and June of 2014, the retail sector led all industries in data breaches with 145 million records, or 83% of the total records compromised, costing retailers $195 per record apprehended. In response, Boston Retail Partners has released recommendations for data security best practices.    The recommendations include:  

Las Vegas -- Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce has been awarded the leasing assignment for Pawn Plaza in Las Vegas, Nevada. The new retail project will be located along Las Vegas Boulevard next to the World-Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, which is featured on cable channel History’s No. 1 show, “Pawn Stars.”  

Pittsburgh –- Multi-format food, fuel and pharmacy retailer Giant Eagle Inc. is piloting smart devices from Brickstream for capturing and analyzing in-store data at six stores. Brickstream’s hardware and software solutions deliver the equivalent of “clickstream” analytics for the brick-and-mortar world.   

St. Petersburg, Fla. –- HSN Inc. is partnering with television services provider TiVo to launch Shop By Remote, HSN's interactive shopping experience. With a click of a button TiVo users can now shop for thousands of products featured on HSN shows.    Located within the Apps & Games menu on TiVo Central, users can visit the HSN app to view and purchase recently featured items or browse HSN's catalogue of more than 40,000 products. 

Whole Foods Market is helping its shoppers make a choice between good, better and best when it comes to the level of growing practices they want to support when purchasing fruits, vegetables and flowers.