Omnichannel

Seattle – Amazon.com is reportedly piloting an in-house delivery service that would use trucks driven by Amazon-hired contractors to deliver packages from area distribution centers to customer homes. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com is testing the service in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

The service could potentially reduce shipping times and costs and also enable same-day shipping. It is also seen as a direct competitive move against UPS, as well as Wal-Mart, EBay and Google.

Charlottesville, Va. – Crutchfield Corp. has adopted the new integrated 360pi-Displaydata solution to realize in-store dynamic pricing. 360pi is working with Displaydata to incorporate Electronic Shelf Labeling (ESL) to give physical stores the ability to employ dynamic pricing.

The new solution is designed to provide retailers with the ability to automate and increase the frequency of in-store price updates without the cost, time, effort and error associated with manual price changes

San Francisco - Although 77% of top online retailers have published a mobile app and 62% of them prompt users to opt into push notifications, many of them are missing a significant opportunity to perform push communications. According to new data from mobile analytics provider Other Levels, only 31% of the top 100 online retailers actually sent a message through push notification.

However, Other Levels data shows that 70% of consumers are open to receiving mobile push notifications. Additional findings include:

A new digital initiative from Walgreens allows the retailer to engage with shoppers at multiple touchpoints on the path to purchase thanks to a personalized digital coupon and analytics platform from Coupons.com called Retailer iQ.

Coupons.com announced the launch of Retailer iQ with Walgreens as the largest user of the platform with implementations underway with four other unidentified retailers. According to Coupons.com Retailer iQ fundamentally changes the promotions and checkout experience for shoppers and retailers by making them digital, mobile and personalized.

Seattle – Amazon.com’s net income soared 32% during the first quarter of fiscal 2014, climbing to $108 million from $82 million the same quarter a year earlier. Net sales increased 23% to $19.74 billion in the first quarter, compared with $16.07 billion in first quarter 2013.

Toronto - OfficeMax Grand & Toy, an affiliate of Office Depot, Inc., will close all of its 19 Canadian retail stores. OfficeMax Grand & Toy will continue to service its business customers via the company’s e-commerce website, customer service centers and direct sales representatives.

Woonsocket, R.I. - CVS/pharmacy has expanded the ExtraCare loyalty program, allowing members to send more of their savings and rewards directly to their ExtraCare cards. Through the Send to Card feature, ExtraCare cardholders can now digitally send all personalized offers available on CVS.com and the CVS Mobile app, as well as coupons received via email, to their cards in a single click.

Send to Card was first introduced in 2011 and provided a digital option for select coupons and rewards. Now, ExtraCare members can send more coupons to their cards.

Mooresville, N.C. -- Lowe’s Cos. has named Joseph M. (Mike) Mabry as strategy and experience design executive, replacing Robert J. Gfeller who left the company last month.

Michael P. McDermott has been promoted to chief merchandising officer, replacing Michael A. Jones, who will assume the role of chief customer officer, effective April 30.