News

Couche-Tard to buy 18 stores in Texas as CFO suddenly resigns
One of the world’s largest C-store operators is searching for a new CFO as the company expands its reach in the southern United States with a deal to buy 18 convenience stores operating under the Texas Star brand.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. announced that Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Raymond Paré has resigned. It also announced a deal to acquire 18 convenience stores in the Souhwest, which will be converted to the Circle K brand and will continue to sell Shell and CITGO-branded fuel. The deal is expected to close by next April.
Hackers hit southeastern thrift store chain
The latest retail data breach demonstrates that hackers will victimize whoever is vulnerable.

America’s Thrift Stores, an Alabama-based, 18-store for-profit chain that sells donated items and then contributes a significant portion of the profit to local charities, has been breached, Hackers used malware to compromise the systems of a third-party service provider, which gave them access to the America’s Thrift Stores network.

Top retail CMOs to be honored in New York City

Top marketers at Neiman Marcus and Home depot were among a group of marketing executives recognized by the CMO Club this week.

The CMO Club, established to celebrate the marketing industry's brightest leaders and to provide a forum to share their successes with other CMOs, determined four winners in various categories.
Under Armour starts hunt for new CFO

A key Under Armour executive is stepping down.

Under Armour announced that its COO and CFO, Brad Dickerson, is leaving the company to pursue an unnamed opportunity outside of the athletic performance industry.
Instacart moves into ingredients

Instacart is taking a step beyond partnering with specific retailers to provide same-day grocery deliveries.

The online delivery platform is partnering with food-focused social network Allrecipes to deliver fresh ingredients from Allrecipes’ highest-rated, most popular recipes on-demand. With the click of a button, consumers can add all necessary ingredients from Allrecipes meals and have them delivered straight to their doorstep in as little as one hour.
How brands can win with mobile

The ability to point or wave a mobile device in the proximity of a product and access the collective knowledge of the universe is becoming the norm for consumers. Faced with satisfying such mind-bending expectations, brands and retailers are scrambling for solutions.
RetailNext acquires cloud-based marketing provider

Brick-and-mortar analytics provider RetailNext Inc. is expanding into the marketing space.

RetailNext has acquired Pikato, http://www.pikato.com/ a Chicago-based company whose cloud-based software enables personal, one-to-one mobile customer interactions.
Sally Beauty enters pricing zone

Pricing can be a mysterious and dimly lit dimension for many retailers.

Sally Beauty Supply LLC is emerging from the pricing twilight and entering the zone of effectively targeted price strategy in a new partnership with Revionics. The specialty beauty chain will deploy Revionics Price Optimization solution, which includes price management, strategic price simulation and optimization.
Survey: Customers go beyond packaging

Simple physical packaging doesn’t cut it for today’s omnichannel consumer.

Although 85% of U.S. adult shoppers say reading a product package helps them make in-store purchase decisions, 78% have wanted additional information about a product after reading a product's package, according to a new Harris Poll commissioned by Digimarc Corp.
Report: American Apparel founder could delay chain’s restructuring plan

Could American Apparel founder and ousted CEO Dov Charney thwart the chain’s Chapter 11 filing? "Any CEO who has built a company from scratch -- which has become a sizable globally known enterprise that is nearly synonymous with the CEO himself and his personality -- is going to be able to cause some sort of disruption in the bankruptcy court," said Matt Covington, a managing director at Conway MacKenzie, a financial consulting firm that specializes in bankruptcy transactions, in a report by the Los Angeles Times.
Newegg cracks mobile success code

Online consumer electronics retailer Newegg Inc. is giving mobile consumers what they want.

A comprehensive redesign of Newegg’s mobile shopping experience includes a new mobile site optimized for viewing on mobile devices, and universal apps for Android and iOS devices. Newegg says this is the most comprehensive mobile refresh in its history.
This return is on PayPal

PayPal is helping U.S. customers and retailers with a new shipping perk.

The payment services platform is expanding Return Shipping on Us, a service that refunds return shipping costs to consumers on eligible online purchases, to the U.S.