Omnichannel

By Gary Lee, InReality

Retailers who are blazing the way forward for grocery-as-service are winning the e-commerce battle.
 
The grocery game is not for the faint of heart. It’s a crowded, complicated category, with players ranging from multi-national supermarket kings to ever-present local mom-and-pop markets. Operational nightmares include supplier management and famously miniscule margins. But it’s grocery’s unique complexities that have protected it from e-commerce.
 
Until now.
 

Shopzilla wanted to highlight its recent transformation from comparison shopping to technology driven marketing solutions. To that end, it has changed its name to Connexity.

According to the company, its new solutions enable retailers and brands to understand their consumers better, acquire new customers at a lower cost and increase sales based on retail signals that it provides.

Boston – Lifecycle marketing technology provider QuickPivot has selected Datawatch to power the advanced reporting capabilities in a new hosted campaign management platform. QuickPivot offers a cross-channel marketing platform and marketing services that provide lead generation and nurturing, as well as closed sale, upsell and cross-sell.

New York -- Brown Shoe Company’s Sam Edelman brand has opened a 3,500-sq.-ft. store in Beverly Hills, California.

The space has a sexy, stylish and whimsical vibe that’s meant to reflect the essence of the brand. The design, by Dagnell Folger of Architecture + Information, embraces the juxtaposition between raw and refined, mixing materials such as reclaimed wood and raw concrete with rose colored brass and black leather.

San Jose, Calif. – PayPal has released a version of its PayPal Here mobile payment card acceptance app and reader that is compliant with most major Android tablets. The PayPal Here service itself had previously been available for Android smartphones, but not tablets.

The release primarily allows users of tablet-sized Android devices to now use PayPal Here to accept card payments. There are no major new features.

Stockholm -- The U.S. payments market is getting a new player: Klarna, a Swedish e-commerce company focused on simplifying buying, plans to expand to the U.S. market in early 2015. The nine-year old company has an impressive track record in Europe that includes more than 25 million users and 45,000 retailers including Asos, Spotify and Zara.

Philadelphia -- Nearly one-quarter (24%) of retailers expect a significant increase (5% or more) in year-over-year sales during the 2014 holiday season, while another 70% are predicting sales will be on par with the 2013 season, according to a survey by global management consultancy Hay Group.