Store Systems

In 1984, at the impressionable age of 17, Doug McMillon’s journey with Walmart began in a way that hardly foretold he would one day become CEO. On the way to a Walmart warehouse for his first day of unloading trucks, McMillon rear-ended his supervisor’s car with his father’s Honda Civic, he recalled in the February issue of Walmart World.

Although McMillon’s early exposure to Walmart came inside a sweltering distribution center, he said the camaraderie, enthusiasm and passion he witnessed let him know something special was going on.

Vancouver, Canada -- PayWith Inc. has launched a new smartphone app called the mCard that simply and securely enables in-store transactions with mobile devices. PayWith has signed a North American license agreement with a global payment network that allows PayWith to provide merchants and consumers with a secure and convenient smartphone-based payment, loyalty rewards, and commission sales solution.

Tractor Supply Company has named former Ulta Beauty executive Robert D. Mills as SVP and chief information officer, succeeding James Callison. Mills will also serve on the company’s executive committee.

Callison, who informed the company last year about his plans to retire, will remain on-board for an undisclosed amount of time while the transition is completed.

Minneapolis – Target Corp. reportedly had early notice of the holiday data breach that exposed the personal and financial information of millions of customers but did not act upon it. According to Bloomberg, a $1.6 million security application called FireEye notified Target of a possible intrusion in to its network, but the retailer failed to respond.

Jacksonville, Fla. – Stein Mart Inc. reported drops in net income and sales during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, which it mainly attributed to the year-ago period having one extra week. The retailer remains optimistic as it plans to open 10 new stores and six relocated stores in fiscal 2014.

Fourth quarter net income dropped 42% to $7.4 million from $13.1 million compared to the same period in the prior year, while total sale declined 2% to $360.8 million from $368.6 million. In one bright note, same-store sales grew 3.1%.

Finance executives who participated in professional services firm BDO’s annual CFO survey expect 8.2% growth in online sales this year and not surprisingly plan to increase investments in mobile capabilities.

Mobile and online sales will continue to drive growth for retailers in 2014, the firm said. However, now that e-commerce has firmly taken root in the retail industry, growth is beginning to stabilize. As a result, about 64% of CFOs said online sales will grow in the coming year, a figure below the 74% who expressed that sentiment the prior year.

Thorofare, N.J. -- The ECR Shrinkage Group, an expert group focused on shrink, with the support of merchandise availability solutions supplier for the retail industry Checkpoint Systems, is launching an online benchmarking tool, which enables retailers to understand how well they are managing shrink compared to others and the relative strengths and opportunities of their loss-prevention program. The tool provides global benchmarks on the strategic, organizational and operational standards that underpin an effective shrink management strategy.

By Loreal Lynch, VP marketing, Shopatron

The rise of multichannel shopping has forced retailers to begin implementing strategic omni-channel initiatives across their organizations in an effort to satisfy increasing customer demands. These initiatives are ushering in even higher customer service expectations from shoppers who have no patience for disconnected experiences that fail to match the omni-channel marketing promise.