Omnichannel

San Francisco – Electronic payment provider Square Inc. is extending its Square Cash e-checking service to businesses. Square is launching Square Cash Pro for Business as an offshoot of its Square Cash personal e-checking service, introduced in 2013.

Retailers using Cash Pro can accept payments from any Cash customer through the Cash app, via email, with $Cashtags, or online from Cash.me. $Cashtags allow businesses to accept electronic payments without revealing an email address or phone number.

Framingham, Mass. - A six-sigma green belt, Victoria Brown joins IDC Retail Insights  as senior research analyst, retail supply chain.  In this new role, Brown will spearhead the supply chain research program.

She will be covering topics such as inventory management, warehouse management, logistics and omnichannel distributed order orchestration. Most recently, Brown served as a supply chain leader, overseeing load balance and tracking distribution channels for the third-largest plant in Frito Lay North America.  
 

Digital-first doesn’t mean digital-only. At least not anymore. Some brands have already embraced that lesson in a bold way, and many others are taking notice.

New York – New York & Company Inc. reported a net loss of $6.7 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to net income of $6.9 million in the same quarter a year earlier. A variety of costs, including increased selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses as well as expenses related to relocation of corporate headquarters and severance, contributed to New York & Company’s negative profit results.

Wasn’t Best Buy supposed to be out of business by now? Instead, the company has shown itself to be one of the retail industry’s most resilient operators, achieving growth in the face of intense competition and deteriorating demand for once hot product categories like tablets.

Not that long ago Best Buy was at risk of becoming irrelevant, a victim of showrooming and competitive forces, headed for a fate similar to RadioShack. Instead, as evidenced by its fourth quarter results, Best Buy is practically thriving against some still challenging circumstances.

Deep holiday discounts and the West Coast port dispute hurt profits at New York & Company Inc. during the fourth quarter.

Mexico City - Mexican brand manufacturer and retailer Ferrioni is updating several legacy systems and processes by implementing the complete Jesta I.S. Vision Suite. Ferrioni will not only replace its manual supply chain processes to fully automated ones, but it will also replace legacy POS and merchandising systems.

The Next Big Thing in e-commerce is set to launch in late May according to Marc Lore, CEO of a new online Marketplace called Jet that blends aspects of the traditional warehouse club model with a new approach to dynamic pricing and fulfillment.

Lore said the Jet board of directors is scheduled to meet on May 7. At that time he expects the platform will be ready for launch and the board will pick a specific launch date within the following two week window.