News

Kohl’s and Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions have partnered with Plug and Play for their newest program, Plug and Play Retail, to engage with startups that align with their developing technology initiatives.

Plug and Play Retail is the first brand and retail-focused startup accelerator bringing together a round-table of complementary partners to guide the direction of the program and help decide the startups accepted.

Chico's FAS is looking to establish a Canadian footprint, and plans in late August to open three boutiques in Ontario at Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga, Upper Canada Mall in Newmarket and Mapleview Shopping Centre in Burlington.

The Chico's brand was founded in 1983 as a boutique selling Mexican folk art and cotton sweaters from a store on Florida's Sanibel Island. Today, Chico's sells exclusively designed, private branded clothing for women.

At its Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Tampa, IBM announced ‘IBM ExperienceOne,’ a new integrated portfolio of cloud-based and on premise offerings that help clients quickly deliver deeper, more valuable customer engagements by bringing together marketing, sales and service practices.

Staples this week debuted eight new product categories in its Dallas retail stores to help business customers “Make More One-stop Shopping Happen.” The product expansion is rolling out to more than 1,000 stores across the U.S. and hundreds more in Canada.

Coach has appointed David Denton, EVP and CFO of CVS, to its board.

The company also appointed William Nuti, who was named chairman, CEO and president of NCR Corp., to the board. The appointments of Nuti and Denton brings to 11 the number of board members.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has appointed Karen Cate as CFO and Jeff Schroeder as VP of operations.

Cate was the VP, controller of Trader Joe's Company, where she was responsible for the integrity of financial processes and reporting for the retail grocery store, warehouses and distribution operations. She has also held financial management positions for Sun Microsystems, Nestlé USA and Avery Dennison Corporation.

Retail sales rose ever so slightly in April, putting a damper on hopes of a sharp uptick in economic growth in the second quarter. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, retail sales, which include categories such as automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants, rose 0.1% in April, following a revised 1.5% increase in March that ranked as the biggest since March 2010.

Those of us who’ve been around retail for a while remember the shutdown that brought West Coast port operations to a halt in the fall of 2002.

JDA Software Group, a leading global supply chain planning and execution solutions provider, has appointed Baljit (Bal) Dail, a technology executive who has served as JDA’s chairman since May 2013, as interim CEO, effective immediately, replacing Hamish Brewer, who is leaving the company.

Dail will lead the search for a permanent successor to lead the company in the next phase of its strategic growth plan.

Julep Beauty has unveiled its first fully customizable monthly beauty box subscription. Beginning this month, subscribers to the Julep Maven service can create their own personalized mix of products for their boxes, choosing from among 2 million possible combinations of full-size beauty products and limited-batch nail polishes.