News

Report: Retailers lining up for Sports Authority assets
Dick’s Sporting Goods and Academy Sports + Outdoors have submitted letters of interest to buy some of the assets of Sports Authority Inc. that will go on the block in a bankruptcy auction, according to Reuters.

Modells Sporting Goods is also reportedly interested in some of the assets of the chain, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early March.
GameStop’s growth strategy involves more stores
GameStop CEO Paul Raines expects physical sales to remain key to the company’s revenue as customers continue to visit stores for such hardware as new consoles and virtual reality devices, and also to buy, sell and trade games and hardware, the Dallas Business Journal reported. “Our core physical games are generating cash flow that we can deploy into other retail concepts to generate growth,” Raines said at the chain’s 2016 Investors Day.

Analysis: Mobile customers affect retail across channels

Consumers are using their mobile devices to shop in ways that have an impact both in-store and online.

Analysis of daily surveys of recent online buyers by Hayley Silver, VP of Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, shows that online purchases on a mobile device as a percent of online orders have been growing and maintaining market share since late 2014. However, nearly 12% of all online shoppers still don’t use their mobile device to shop at all.
TechBytes: Five reasons Facebook will have a major impact on CRM

Facebook has been getting a lot of attention for recent updates which make it more of a direct customer engagement tool. The attention is deserved, because Facebook is on its way to becoming a vitally important CRM platform. Here are five reasons why.

Everyone is doing it
Study: Omnichannel, Amazon “effect” impact retail supply chain

Increased customer expectations for a seamless front-end experience, as well as the “Amazon effect,” are having a significant influence on retailers’ back-end systems and operations.

According to a new study of 24 senior retail supply chain executives from Auburn University’s Center for Supply Chain Innovation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and Checkpoint Systems, “The State of the Retail Supply Chain,” 81% of respondents are either using, developing or investigating integrated demand planning.
Tiffany aligns with fashion site to sell more jewelry

In a first, Tiffany & Co. will sell its jewelry online, on a site other than its own.

Tiffany has entered into a limited collaboration with online retailer Net-A-Porter to make select Tiffany items available for purchase on the global fashion site.

“With their recognized edit and fashion authority, Net-A-Porter will re-introduce Tiffany as more than the legendary jeweler, but an expression of personal style,” said Philippe Galtie, senior vice president of international sales at Tiffany & Co.
Pier 1 regains footing in 2016, eyes improved profits

Pier 1 shrank its store base and e-commerce penetration reached record levels during the company’s fourth quarter, a period in which profitability was marred by promotions, markdowns and supply chain issues.
Study: Omnichannel, Amazon impact retail supply chain

Increased customer expectations for a seamless front-end experience, as well as the “Amazon effect,” are having a significant influence on retailers’ back-end systems and operations.

According to a new study of 24 senior retail supply chain executives from Auburn University’s Center for Supply Chain Innovation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and Checkpoint Systems, “The State of the Retail Supply Chain,” 81% of respondents are either using, developing or investigating integrated demand planning.
On-call scheduling comes under scrutiny in 8 more states

A controversial labor practice employed by some retailers is coming under increased scrutiny by U.S.regulators.
Accenture names former Oracle exec as head of retail

Jill Standish
Jill Standish has joined Accenture Consulting and been named senior managing director, retail. As the head of Accenture’s retail practice, Standish will focus on the business strategy and ongoing development and execution of retail industry strategy for clients. She will also manage the company’s retail industry client portfolio.
Study: Retail fraud on the rise

Both the volume of and monetary losses caused by fraudulent transactions have sharply increased in the past year. According to the “2016 True Cost of Fraud Report” from LexisNexis Risk Solutions, the monthly average of fraudulent transactions has increased 32% to 206 from 156 in 2015. In addition, the monthly average of prevented fraudulent transactions has risen 33% to 236 from 177.
eBay brings better offers to the surface

Online retail platform eBay wants to ensure consumers can quickly find the most relevant items at the best prices. eBay is unveiling several types of new browsing modules and approaches to surfacing goods that go beyond traditional keyword search results. The new modules take advantage of structured data that is now foundational on the eBay platform.