News

Juniper: Retailers brace for $71 billion card-not-present fraud loss
With fraudulent card-not-present (CNP) transactions on the rise, losses will become staggering over the next five years. Retailers stand to lose $71 billion globally by 2022, driven by a number of factors, such as the United States' shift to Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) chip cards, delays in 3DS 2.0 (3D-Secure) and click-and-collect fraud. This was according to “Online Payment Fraud: Emerging Threats, Key Vertical Strategies & Market Forecasts 2017-2022,” a report from Juniper Research.
J.Crew clinched lenders’ consent to amend loan
J. Crew just bought itself some more time with its lenders. Lenders holding approximately 88% of the outstanding principal amount of loans under J. Crew’s term loan agreement have approved a term amendment. The amendment, initially proposed in mid-June, was offering to exchange its $566.6 million of outstanding pay-in-kind notes due 2019. The notes were issued by Chinos Intermediate Holdings, an indirect parent to J.Crew.

Canadian retailer prepares for bankruptcy

Sears Canada could file for Chapter 11 sooner than expected. The struggling offshoot of Sears Holdings Corp., is preparing to seek court protection against its creditors. The filing — which could happen within weeks — will likely lead to a liquidation, with the business sold off in pieces, sources told Bloomberg.
Online merchant ups the ante in online price war

eBay is stepping up its game in the online price war competition, and taking aim at low-cost rivals Walmart and Amazon, among others. Starting Tuesday, eBay launched its Price Match Guarantee on more than 50,000 deals in the United States. As the name suggests, the program promises that an eligible deal will be the best price available online, or eBay will match the lower price found on a competitor’s website.
AmazonGo technology exec jumps ship

As Amazon continues to ready its cashierless convenience store concept for the public, the company has lost one of the project’s technology leaders.
Commentary: Amazon accelerating e-commerce disruption of apparel

Apparel is at a tipping point. E-commerce currently accounts for 17%-20% of total apparel sales in the U.S. Historically, when e-commerce surpasses the 20% threshold of a retail category Amazon comes in and makes a big wave, because Amazon is the main beneficiary of e-commerce capturing half of all growth in online retail. We’ve witnessed it time and time again in both media and electronics, and now it’s happening in apparel.
Whole Foods Markets CEO expects Amazon deal to evolve the brand

The ink is barely dry on Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods Markets, yet the natural grocer’s CEO implied that “big ideas” are already in the works.
Regional grocer improves workforce efficiencies

Lowe’s Foods is taking steps to increase efficiency across its workforce. The grocer is adopting enterprise labor planning and workforce management solutions from Logile across the chain’s nearly 100 stores operating in the Carolinas and Virginia. The solutions will help the grocer generate more accurate sales and labor forecasts, and improve scheduling at the task level across all store departments.
Amazon in big apparel move with 'try-before-you-buy' service
Wireless carrier expanding its store network in California

Sprint continues to expand its presence and investment in Southern California. The company plans to add more than 550 new jobs and 78 new retail locations throughout the Southland by the end of 2017. The new jobs will include a combination of retail, operations and technical experts. Currently, Sprint operates more than 300 branded retail locations throughout the Southern California region.