Omnichannel

New York -- Alibaba Group Holding Limited announced that it hosted $9.3 billion in sales on China’s “Singles Day,” an annual sales event held on Nov. 11. 

 

The E-commerce giant  said that 43 of all Singles Day transactions came through mobile devices, up from 21% in 2013.  

 

Chicago -- Although consumers are changing how they shop for food and beverages, most prefer to make perishable purchases in tradition brick-and-mortar locations.  

Department store retailer Belk has enlisted a hot male model to serve as a non-traditional Santa Claus at the center of a multifaceted digital initiative.

CurrentC, the mobile payment service under development from a retailer consortium known as Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX, has been getting a lot of attention in the past week. First MCX members CVS and Rite Aid disabled their NFC payment systems to block the rival ApplePay mobile payment service, and then hackers stole the emails of CurrentC users. And despite all this publicity, CurrentC is still in pilot mode.  

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Mobile shopping is expected to reach new highs this  holiday season, but retailers aren’t prepared to meet customers’ mobile needs, according to a new CFI Group study, sponsored by eBay Enterprise.           

Princeton, N.J. -- Heartland Payment Systems, the nation's fifth largest payments processor and a leading provider of merchant business solutions, has acquired leading foodservice industry enterprise-level POS software provider, XPIENT Solutions.  

Minneapolis --The competition for the holiday shopper continues with the news that Target Corp. is kicking off the holiday season extra early this year, with plans to offer early access to Black Friday deals for one-day only on Nov. 10, a pre-sale on Nov. 26, and a 6 p.m. store opening on Thanksgiving evening.

The Joseph Abboud brand has launched an exclusive new collection at JosephAbbound.com and in early 2015 the brand plans to open its first physical store thanks to parent company Men’s Wearhouse.