Supply Chain & Merchandising

Wolverine Worldwide, a leading marketer of branded footwear, apparel and accessories, is leveraging Demandware as the digital commerce backbone of its global retail direct-to-consumer operations.

The company is consolidating its digital commerce operations for its brand portfolio across all geographies onto the Demandware Commerce platform. The first brand to launch on Demandware is Sperry Top-Sider, which went live with eight international Web and mobile commerce sites in January.

New York -- Meijer is testing an automated system that speeds up the checkout process at its store in Jenison, Mich. The system, from NCR, automatically scans merchandise. It became available customers on April 3, according to MichiganLive.

As shoppers place merchandise on a conveyor belt, the items are scanned, and then sent to one of three collection areas, where customers bag them.

Orlando, Fla. -- Checkpoint Systems Inc. is releasing its new Zephyr 2 RFID label, which is certified by the University of Arkansas’ ARC Center for item-level tagging of all apparel categories in the U.S. and Europe. The Zephyr 2 RFID label design has an integrated UCode 7 chip from NXP Semiconductors, and comes with optimal read/write sensitivity for accurate counting and quicker encoding.  

Washington, D.C. -- Import volume at major U.S. retail container ports is expected to increase 6.1% in April 2014, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates. U.S. ports followed by Global Port Tracker handled 1.26 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEU) in February 2014, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available.

Cambridge, Mass. – Retail visual merchandising solution provider RBM Technologies has named E.Y. Snowden its new president and CEO. Snowden was previously CEO of Boston Communications Group and president of APC/Sprint Spectrum.

In addition, RBM has closed a $9.5 million round of growth equity financing led by Spring Lake Equity Partners. RBM plans to use the financing to enhance its products and enter the international mobile market and new retail verticals.

Salisbury, N.C. – Delhaize America has entered into a multi-year agreement for Revionics Life Cycle Price Optimization solutions, which include Revionics Price Optimization, Revionics Promotion Optimization and Revionics Markdown Optimization. The agreement also includes Revionics Advanced Analytics services: key value item (KVI) analysis, item clustering and market basket analysis.

ChannelAdvisor, a leading provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions that enable retailers and manufacturers to increase global sales, has promoted Jordan Weinstein to the role of managing director, EMEA.

Weinstein will be responsible for developing the company’s local strategy and direction for growth. Along with this appointment, ChannelAdvisor has expanded its European management team with four new directors in the EMEA region.

Alameda, Calif. — Bagel Street Café and The Best Lil’ Porkhouse have signed into South Shore Center on the waterfront in Alameda, Calif. Jamestown, a national real estate investment and management firm, owns the center.

Bagel Street Café has signed a 10-year lease for 2,323 sq. ft. and plans to open this summer. SRS Real Estate Partners represented Bagel Street.

The Best Lil’ Porkhouse signed a 10-year lease for 3,639 sq. ft.