Data & Analytics

GENCO, a product lifecycle logistics solutions company, has promoted Mike Simpson to president of GENCO’s retail logistics business unit and Tom Perry to chief technology officer.

Signet Jewelers is in the process of acquiring all issued and outstanding stock of Zale for $21 per share in cash consideration. The transaction brings together two leading jewelry retailers with six brands available across three countries with combined sales of $6.2 billion.

Safeway has confirmed that it is in discussions concerning a possible transaction involving the sale of the company. However, the company declined to comment further at this time.

"Although the discussions are ongoing, the company has not reached an agreement on a transaction, and there can be no assurance that these discussions will lead to an agreement or a completed transaction," Safeway stated as part of its earnings release.

The new Wonder e-gift card app from Wonder Technologies is available free in the iTunes App store. Wonder allows consumers to instantly deliver e-gifts from participating retailers to anyone with an email address or mobile phone number.

New York -- The costs related to Target's  data breach have now exceeded $200 million for financial institutions, according to  the Consumer Bankers Association and the Credit Union National Association, the Associated Press reported. The $200 million figure does not include the cost of any a fraudulent activity, which would push the cost of the breach to the industry higher as consumers are not held liable.

The two trade associations said that 21.8 million of the 40 million compromised credit and debit cards have been replaced.

New York -- President Barack Obama visited Safeway Inc.’s distribution center in Upper Marlboro, Md., where he spotlighted the chain’s efforts to improve truck efficiency and called for new fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks by March 2016. The new standards will mean “thousands of dollars in savings every year” for truck operators, Obama said.

Washington, D.C. -- The Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, DC-based think tank seeking to advance responsible data use and consumer privacy, and The Wireless Registry Inc., the first global registry of wireless names and identifiers, announced the launch of a new platform that will allow consumers to easily and quickly opt-out of mobile location analytics at thousands of locations in the U.S.
 

Redmond, Wash. -- Microsoft Corp. has enhanced Microsoft Dynamics CRM by adding a comprehensive set of new marketing, customer care and social listening capabilities to the suite. The new release is expected in the second quarter of 2014.

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney Company has named Ed Record as CFO, effective March 24. He will also serve as executive VP. Record, 45, comes to Penney from regional department store chain Stage Stores, where he most recently served as COO and, before that, as CFO.

Record will succeed Ken Hannah, who was hired in May 2012 under former CEO Ron Johnson.

Irvine, Calif. – Beall’s has selected replenishment and profiling solutions from JustEnough Software Corporation, a provider of demand management solutions for retail, wholesale and direct-to-consumer businesses worldwide.

Beall’s utilizes existing legacy systems, so delivering strong, focused product presentations and excellent in-stocks required a high inventory investment and was very time consuming.