Sales & Marketing

Fort Myers, Fla. – Chico’s FAS Inc. is reportedly building a mobile shopping app for the iOS and Android platforms. According to the Wall Street Journal, the app will integrate with iBeacon location sensors on shelves.

This app, currently in pilot testing, would reportedly use iBeacons to notify customers who have opted in when they are near items that fit their purchase history. Associates would then use iPads to update the customer’s history.

Walmart shareholders have gotten spoiled by some hefty dividend increases in recent years, but that won’t be the case in 2014 when the annual payout rises a meager 2%.

Walmart announced the dividend increase in conjunction with the release of uncharacteristically disappointing financial results. The company increased the annual payout to $1.92 from $1.88 last year, making the 2% increase the smallest amount of the past decade.

Cambridge, Mass. - StopLift Checkout Vision Systems is introducing the Self-Checkout Accelerator, which is designed to immediately flag unscanned merchandise at the checkout and alert the attendant before the customer leaves the checkout, improve customer service at the self-checkout, and prevent false alerts and interventions.  

Gap contends its decision to increase the hourly rate it pays workers wasn’t political, but it sure looked otherwise given the timing of the move against the backdrop of the intensifying national debate over the minimum wage.

San Jose, Calif. – Sales for Valentine’s Day this year fell prior to the holiday compared to the same period in 2013, but rose on the actual holiday itself, Feb. 14. According to new figures from site analytics provider RetailNext, men’s stores (that have gifts for men) saw decreased (-13.8%) sales the day before Valentine’s, but an increase of +22.2% in sales on Valentine's Day itself in 2014.

Lexington, Mass. – Vertical footwear retailer Keds is launching an omni-channel marketing campaign called the “Keds Brave Life Project.” The campaign is aimed at encouraging positive development of girls and young women.

Menlo Park, Calif. -- Facebook has reached an agreement to acquire WhatsApp, a cross-platform mobile messaging company, for a total of approximately $16 billion, including $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. The agreement also provides for an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp’s founders and employees that will vest during four years subsequent to closing.

Vertical footwear retailer Keds is launching an omnichannel marketing campaign called the “Keds Brave Life Project.” The campaign is aimed at encouraging positive development of girls and young women.