Data & Analytics

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in March 2013 versus March 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. H.E.B. and Publix topped the charts in circular page change, with increases of 27.8% and 41.2%, respectively. The massive increase at Publix was attributable to the release of an additional circular this March (five versus four in 2013), while H.E.B. simply ran more pages in each of its five March circulars (eight to 12 pages each this year, as opposed to six to eight last year).

Woonsocket, R.I. -- CVS Caremark Corp. agreed to pay $20 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it misled investors in 2009 during a debt offering and by accounting improperly for an acquisition.

The SEC said CVS failed to disclose while marketing $1.5 billion of bonds in September 2009 having recently lost significant Medicare and contract revenue streams in its pharmacy benefits manager business.

Rakuten has teamed up with First Bankcard to launch the Rakuten Rewards MasterCard Program, which provides cardholders with reward points for using their credit card to shop on Rakuten.com and elsewhere.  

Rakuten.com, formerly Buy.com, is Rakuten's U.S. marketplace, offering consumers more than 17 million products at everyday low prices from a network of small and large business shop owners.

New York -- Wesfield Garden State Plaza, in Paramus, N.J., is merging the digital experience with the physical one. The shopping center has installed a series of 7-ft. tall, ultra-high definition touch-screen displays, called “digital storefronts,” in its just-opened Fashion District wing. The new wing adds 55,000 sq. ft. over two floors and 22 new stores and restaurants to the mall

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.

Oxford, U.K. -- Vuzix Corp., a U.K.-based supplier of video eyewear and smart glasses products, and Vision Smarts, a Belgian company that develops, distributes and supports software libraries for image recognition and real-time video analysis, have created a custom built-version of the “pic2shop” application specifically for use with the M100 Smart Glasses.

By Dave Bruno, Director of Product Marketing, JDA Software

Dallas – Paragon Software Systems Inc., a provider of vehicle routing and scheduling optimization solutions, is introducing Paragon HDS (Home Delivery System) to the U.S. market. Paragon HDS is designed to enable home delivery and home service companies to offer more accurate delivery times while improving fleet efficiency.