News

The buzz and hype surrounding 3D printing can make it hard to separate fact from fiction, but one thing is for sure: 3D printing has the potential to transform shopper expectations and retail supply chains.

The Wet Seal has appointed Deena Varshavskaya, Nancy Lublin and Adam Rothstein as independent members of the company’s board of directors, bringing the total number of members to nine.

Rite Aid introduced a new program, dubbed Rite Aid Health Alliance, which is a health management collaboration among various healthcare providers that provides comprehensive care and support to individuals with chronic and poly-chronic health conditions and helps them achieve health improvement goals established by their physicians.

Ebates has enlisted Epsilon, an Alliance Data (ADS) company, to help the leading online cash back shopping platform enhance its global email marketing services.

Per the multiyear agreement, Epsilon will provide robust, targeted email marketing services focused on driving sales and creating a more personalized experience for customers across Ebates' suite of websites and rewards programs including Ebates.com, Ebates.ca, Ebates Korea, FatWallet.com and Pushpins.

Kmart and Sears are among a group of companies identified as “the least engaging brands of 2014,” in a recently released index of customer loyalty.

"A brand can't do well in today's marketplace if it can't engage consumers, no matter how many ads are run, and no matter how much social networking one does," said Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys, a New York-based brand loyalty and emotional engagement research consultancy.

Belk is gearing up for its bi-annual Kidfest in-store event Saturday, March 29, from noon–3 p.m. at all locations.

It's an innovative way for the Charlotte, N.C.-based department store, which operates 299 locations in 16 Southern states, generate customer traffic, not to mention buzz among shoppers as moms talk about their kids being in the show.

Chiquita Brands International plans to combine with and Fyffes, an international importer and distributor of tropical produce, in a stock-for-stock transaction that will create a global banana and other fresh produce company with approximately $4.6 billion in annual revenues.

Once the transaction is completed, before the end of 2014, Chiquita shareholders will own approximately 50.7% of ChiquitaFyffes, while Fyffes shareholders will own the remaining 49.3%, on a fully diluted basis.

With Amazon’s customer retention rate hovering north of 90%, customer loyalty initiatives are understandably at the top of every retail CMO’s to-do list. Of course, it’s harder these days to find room in consumers’ wallets for another membership card, what with American households belonging to an average of 22 loyalty programs, according to the loyalty research unit Colloquy. But Colloquy also found that each household’s activity was concentrated on fewer than half that number of programs.

As other retailers make headlines for store closings, Ross Stores’ 2014 expansion plans remain on track. The off-price retailer has already opened 30 Ross Dress for Less and seven dd's Discounts stores in 14 different states, and there's more to come.

According to reports, eBay is urging shareholders to reject a slate of board members nominated by activist investor Carl Icahn and instead support nominees picked by the company.

Reuters has reported that eBay is asking shareholders to re-elect existing directors CEO John Donahoe, company co-founder and managing director Fred Anderson, Intuit co-founder Scott Cook and former Agilent Technologies CEO Edward Barnholt.