Sales & Marketing

Seattle -- Shoefitr, which provides improved fit and sizing information for customers buying shoes online, has partnered with Nordstrom to help customers shopping on Nordstrom.com find the right fit. As part of the partnership, Nordstrom has also made an investment in Shoefitr.

The capability is now live on Nordstrom.com and uses Shoefitr's 3-D imaging software to provide size and fit recommendations on some of the company's most popular shoe styles that the customer is interested in buying.

Alco is developing a strategy to improve profitability and deliver shareholder value, following a growing net loss during the third quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to the same period in the prior year.

Net loss totaled $16.4 million, compared to $1.4 million. Results in the third quarter of fiscal 2014 included a non-cash charge of $9.8 million related to a valuation allowance on the company's cumulative deferred tax asset, and $1.1 million of non-recurring expenses attributable to merger activity.

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Staples Europe has launched new websites in both Germany and Netherlands. The sites offer a refreshed look and feel and many new features, such as personalized shopping with product recommendations based on customer preferences.

New features also include an updated search engine and filtering tools, easy reordering for frequently used products, quick checkout with a mini-cart that makes it easy to insert coupons, save addresses, and review orders, and a new store locator and ship-to-store functionality.

Woonsocket, R.I. – CVS is basing its enterprise growth strategy on succeeding in the evolving pharmacy benefit management marketplace, capitalizing on the specialty pharmacy opportunity, driving retail growth through personalization, unlocking adherence through pharmacy excellence and expanding MinuteClinics.

Pleasanton, Calif. – Nine-in-10 (89%) Millennnials want gift cards for the holidays, while 73% prefer receiving a gift card from a favorite store as opposed to receiving a specific gift. A new survey of more than 400 Millennials ages 18-28 from global prepaid card network Blackhawk Network also shows that 90% use gift cards to treat themselves to something they wouldn't normally buy or use it in part to buy a more expensive item and 90% use gift cards to treat themselves to something they wouldn't normally buy or use it in part to buy a more expensive item.

Minneapolis – Target says that online traffic continues to grow at double-digit rates, with mobile sales growing more than 100% for the holiday period. Target.com experienced two of the strongest days of sales in its history on Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday.

In addition, Target was recently ranked as the most-browsed retailer on mobile over the past six months, according to a new report from Mobiquity.

L'Orèal USA has introduced a new app for owners of a device that allows them to use tablet-like apps on television through an Internet connection.

The cosmetics maker announced the launch of OnBeauty, which it created under a partnership with Roku and Brightline. Roku created the app for users of connected TV, or CTV, and L'Orèal said OnBeauty would be the go-to beauty hub for CTV users. The app will feature a majority of L'Orèal USA's brands.

Reston, Va. -- U.S. retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers for the first 45 days of the November-December 2013 holiday season totaled $37.8 billion, according to comScore. For the first time ever, the most recent workweek saw five individual days eclipse $1 billion in spending, led by Green Monday with $1.4 billion.