Data & Analytics

New York -- American Express Serve announced a free nationwide cash load network and the addition of new money management capabilities to its full-service reloadable prepaid account. The new features enable Serve customers to load cash for free at more Than 14,000 participating CVS/pharmacy and 7-Eleven stores

The new features include: direct deposit, bill pay, mobile check capture, and personal financial management tools. These enhancements are designed to meet the needs of the nearly 70 million Americans underserved by traditional financial services.

By Doug Brown

With the use of smartphones and other mobile devices continuing to grow, more and more merchants are looking for a way to capitalize on a communication device that many people never put down. And, as the leaders in this area are finding, mobile loyalty and payment incentive programs possess many benefits for chain stores.

Tie mobile and incentives together

Sales trends at J.C. Penney are improving and year end liquidity is now expected to exceed $2 billion following a recent stock offering, the company said Tuesday morning during an uncharacteristic mid-quarter update on its operating performance.

International Dispensing Corporation, a packaging research and development company that specializes and manufactures game-changing innovations for the food and beverage industry, has promoted Tom Shaver to COO.

The Container Store is turning to Borderfree, a leading global e-commerce platform, to help it expand its international e-commerce reach in time for the holiday season.

Previously only accessible to consumers in the U.S. and Canada, the Container Store’s online product offerings are now available to consumers in Australia, India, Mexico, Germany, France, Japan, Switzerland, Russia and the United Kingdom.

OfficeMax has unveiled a Services Center in stores nationwide to provide business owners with essential operations support.

The OfficeMax Services Center offers an extensive portfolio of more than 40 services designed to relieve administrative burden and assist businesses with critical needs, including web design and maintenance, 24/7 On-Call Tech Support, printing and document management, marketing materials, shipping, credit card and payroll processing, human resource services and legal assistance.

The CEO of Delhaize Group's European division has resigned, effective Oct. 31, according to the Belgian supermarket operator.

Delhaize said Stefan Descheemaeker had decided to resign as CEO of Delhaize Europe, though the company did not give a reason. Delhaize said that as a result of Descheemaeker's departure, Delhaize Group EVP and Delhaize Group Southeast Europe and Asia CEO Kostas Macheras would report directly to group CEO Pierre-Olivier Beckers, as would Delhaize Belgium CEO Dirk Van den Berghe, effective Nov. 1.

The National Retail Federation has retained New York-based digital agency Rain to create digital shorts that launched last week on NRF’s industry campaign site, “This is Retail.”

Interview Day — a series of short, humorous videos — targets recent grads and young adults who are worn out competing for jobs in a challenging economy.

Amazon has introduced a new service that streamlines how customers transact with online merchants. Login and Pay with Amazon allows customers of participating companies to go from browsing to buying in just a few clicks using their Amazon account information.

Atlanta -- First Data Corp announced that the First Data OfferWise  solution has been integrated with Microsoft’s Bing Offers Card-Linked, which consolidates local deals from a number of deal providers. OfferWise is an open platform that enables retailers to electronically attach offers to any consumer payment card or mobile wallet to allow streamlined and automatic redemption of the offer at the point of sale (POS).