Sales & Marketing

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.    

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.”  

Tea drinkers longing for a stronger wake-up brew and coffee drinkers wanting to add variety to their repertoire of caffeinated beverages now have options.

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. 

When it comes to domestic divas, Martha Stewart has few rivals, but Ellen DeGeneres is dipping her toe in the water with a new seasonal home collection branded as E.D. On Air.

The popular comedian and talk show host announced the creation of her new lifestyle collection in July called simply E.D. The new seasonal home collection is called E.D. On Air because it was created exclusively for QVC. It will debut on Friday, October 8 when DeGeneres introduces the line live on her show.

St. Louis -- Nike, Apple, Samsung, Sony, and Walmart are the top five “most beloved” brands of millenials in a report by digital advertising agency Moosylvania. The 2015 Top 50 Millennial Brand Ranking Report is based on panel studies of 1,500 millennials (defined as aged 14 to 35).