News

Hong Kong – A subsidiary of global export company Li & Fung is partnering with two Chinese department store retailers to open as many as 300 stores in the Shanghai free trade zone. Li & Fung Trading (China) Holdings Ltd. is forming a joint venture with Shanghai Bailian Group Co. Ltd. and Beijing Wangfujing Department Store (Group) Co. Ltd. Li & Fung holds a 20% stake and each department store chain owns a 40% stake.

Staples is getting an early start on back-to-school season with the debut of new products and promotions.

The retailer wants to help parents get their kids ready for the new school year with the hottest trends ranging from the latest graphic or camouflage patterns in new colors, to products that provide a life-changing impact or exclusive products that were designed with the help of students.

Woonsocket, R.I. -- Norman de Greve will join CVS Health as chief marketing officer, effective July 15. In this role, de Greve will be accountable for marketing strategy across the enterprise.  

Currently, de Greve is president of the Boston and Detroit offices of the DigitasLBi marketing agency. de Greve has experience in cross-channel communications planning, brand campaigns, media, loyalty and analytics.

In addition to his 14 years at DigitasLBi, de Greve spent time in management consulting.
 

The National Retail Federation is recognizing the nation's top law enforcement officers with the organization's annual loss prevention awards.

Recipients of the Ring of Excellence, Law Enforcement Retail Partnership and Retail Case of the Year will be honored during an awards ceremony at NRF PROTECT, the retail industry’s largest event for retail loss prevention executives in North America.

Menlo Park, Calif. – Facebook may not have anywhere near the retail sales volume of Wal-Mart, but in at least one important financial metric the social media network has overtaken Wal-Mart. According to the Associated Press, Facebook has knocked Wal-Mart out of the Standard & Poor’s list of the top 10 most valuable stocks.

Redwood City, Calif. – The Shopular mobile shopping app is rolling out two platform upgrades -- Shopular Products and Shopular Curated Content. Shopular, available for free download from iTunes and Google Play, geo-targets consumers with time- and location-sensitive deal alerts and savings from their preferred merchants from more than 40,000 retail locations across the U.S.  

Minneapolis – Furniture retailer Room & Board has aligned its online and in-store customer experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s predictive digital marketing capabilities. Room & Board has improved the customer experience and delivered more relevant information, which in turn has increased the average order value by 16% and delivered a 2,900% ROI payback during a two-month period.

This has resulted in a significant increase in online sales and improved loyalty.

Los Angeles – Creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi is making three key executive changes. Julie Michael has been named president of Team One, Saatchi & Saatchi's fully integrated premium, luxury and aspirational brand agency, effective Aug. 1.