Sales & Marketing

Mooresville, N.C. – Lowe’s has launched ProExpress, an on-demand delivery service for professional customers. Since April 2014, light-duty trucks have made thousands of deliveries directly to business sites to meet a wide range of needs.

Through the program, Lowe's has helped pros by fulfilling emergency orders such as smoke detectors to pass an inspection, or shingles to complete a job before a damaging storm. The ProExpress trucks also regularly visit businesses to restock shelves with cleaning and maintenance supplies. 

Chicago – True Value Company posted a quarterly net margin of $23.2 million, down 2.5% compared to $23.8 million the prior year period in the second quarter of fiscal 2014. Revenue was $429.5 million, an increase of 4.5% from $411.2 million for the same period a year ago.

Same-store sales rose 4.2%. True Value Company’s expanded farm, ranch, automotive and pet product assortments, plus seasonal and plumbing categories, drove the majority of sales increases.

London - Almost half (48%) of U.K. online shoppers have made an online purchase with a retailer based outside the U.K. According to the latest eCustomerServiceIndex (eCSI) results from EDigitalResearch and IMRG, 60% of the respondents who have shopped cross-border said that they choose to purchase with a retailer outside of the U.K. because of better prices, while another 60% said that they made the purchase because they couldn't get the product they wanted in the U.K.

Chicago – Retail experts from professional services and investment management firm JLL are managing two new shopping centers. JLL has been retained by Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. to manage Beverly Connection, a 348,285-sq.-ft. shopping mall in Los Angeles, and also been retained by 759 Ventures LLC to manage the 58,280-sq.-ft. 2424 North Davidson Street center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Boston -- The top company initiative among retail supply chain executives is “to enable a seamless customer experience online and in the store.” According to the new 2014 Supply Chain Benchmark Survey from Boston Retail Partners (BRP), this “unified commerce” initiative as the evolution of both multichannel and omnichannel retailing to provide a seamless shopping experience whether in the store, on the Web or anywhere customers choose to shop on their mobile devices.
 

Dublin, Ohio - The Wendy’s Company has extended its partnership and will continue licensing APT’s Test & Learn software for another three years. Wendy’s will use the software to test strategic initiatives in menu changes, remodels, marketing, pricing, and operations across its system of more than 6,500 company and franchise-operated restaurants.

Twitter posted solid growth in user metrics for its second quarter, including strength in mobile, which allowed the social media platform to exceed sales and profit forecasts.

Twitter said it had 271 million monthly active users during the quarter ended June 30, an increase of 24% compared to the prior year. Roughly 78% of those users were on mobile devices, a 29% increase from the prior year.

East Rutherford, N.J. - Mark Rickoff, travel retail professional with more than 40 years of experience, has joined Hudson Group as VP business development. Rickoff will have responsibility for building Hudson's business relationships in both new and existing markets.