Omnichannel

New York -- Swedish fast-fashion chain H&M was named “International Retailer of the Year” at the 8th annual World Retail Awards dinner in Paris. The awards were presented during the World Retail Congress, which is being held this week in Paris.

Fast Retailing, the Japanese parent company of Uniqlo and other brands, was named “Retailer of the Year.”

Greensboro, N.C. - Convenience store operator Mapco recently partnered with Gilbarco Veeder-Root to install the Impulse upselling platform across 220 sites by the end of 2014. Mapco, which operates 375 stores in the Southeast, is using the Impulse platform to drive dynamic digital content at both the point-of-sale and through their mobile application.

Fort Worth, Texas -- Trademark Property Co., a retail and mixed-use investor, developer and operator, has welcomed three national big box stores to Alliance Town Center. DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse), Men’s Wearhouse and Sleep Experts have all opened at the 1 million-sq.-ft. outdoor shopping center in Fort Worth, Texas.

DSW is leasing 15,000-sq.-ft. at the shopping center. The new Men’s Wearhouse location totals 5,500-sq.-ft. and the new Sleep Experts store measures 4,500-sq.-ft.

Milford, Conn. -- Subway announced the nationwide availability of contactless/NFC-based mobile payments in partnership with Softcard, completing a rollout that was announced earlier this month.   

In the future, Subway will integrate its card rewards program into the Softcard app in participating markets, providing a simpler way to earn reward points.

San Francisco - Zupa, a mobile marketplace where members buy and sell directly within the app from a user generated community of merchandise, launches today for iPhone and iPod Touch on the App Store. Shipping is calculated automatically and shipping labels are sent to users in an instant.

Austin, Texas - Based on previous savings experienced during the holiday season in 2013 and projected industry growth in 2014, U.S. shoppers have the opportunity to save more than $5 billion dollars by using deal and offer websites during the upcoming holiday season. According to a new study from RetailMeNot and Dr. Jason Abrevaya, Ph.D., economics department chair at the University of Texas at Austin, consumers have the potential to save more than $200 an hour while using RetailMeNot.com, or $34 in 10 minutes.

New York -- Shoe Carnival is deploying eBay Enterprise’s integrated technology and services to streamline its omnichannel operations, including fraud protection, ship-from-store, retail order management, payments, and customer care.

San Francisco - Scandit, a developer of a software-based barcode scanning solution for smartphones, tablets and wearable devices, has released an integrated suite of mobile apps to enhance the consumer shopping experience and retail operations. Scandit’s Mobile App Suite for Retail provides a series of fully customizable, cross-platform mobile applications for retail employees and customers including: clienteling, mobile point-of-sale (mPOS), mobile shopping, self-checkout, shopping lists and procurement.