News

Sears Holdings has named Norman Miller as SVP and president, automotive. Miller most recently served as president and COO of Dollar Financial Corp. In his new role with Sears Holdings, he will be responsible for the company's automotive business, including Sears Auto Centers.

Amazon did a bit of Valentine’s Day data mining of sales of romance novels and sexy music to come up with its fifth annual list of the nation’s top 20 romantic cities. And people are worried about the NSA’s activities?

Online premium-candy marketer Sugarfina has opened its first retail location, in Beverly Hills, Calif. The 1,400-sq.-ft. space is designed as a luxury candy boutique, with a large glass skylight and airy bubble chandeliers that hang like clouds in the sky. Sugarfina candy in hundreds of colors line the walls on thin floating shelves — the candy appears to be floating.
   

New York -- Sports Authority has hired Jeremy Aguilar as CFO. Aguilar, who most recently served as CFO of Hhgregg, replaces former Sports Authority CFO Tom Hendrickson, who retired from the company.

“Jeremy’s expertise in finance and accounting will play a critical role in further strengthening Sports Authority,” said CEO Michael E. Foss. “He will be a valuable asset to the team; we are thrilled to have him on board.”

San Francisco – More than 70% of time on responsive web design (RWD) is spent on the back end in areas such as integration and infrastructure. According to a new report from Moovweb and Forrester Research, 63% of 146 surveyed U.S. companies using RWD today believe that this technique is not suitable for long-term use, suggesting that RWD is largely viewed as a short-term, tactical approach to enterprise mobility.

Reston, Va. -- comScore has entered into a partnership with the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) to expand its cross-platform measurement service that provides a continuous view and measurement of media usage across TV, radio, desktop, smartphone and mobile.

This next phase will allow media companies, marketers and advertising agencies the opportunity to measure things such as multi-platform advertising, mobile video, time-shifted viewing such as DVR playback and children’s viewing.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation on Monday urged Congress to take a comprehensive approach as it contemplates a national response to criminal cyber attacks in which millions of consumers’ credit and debit card numbers were stolen. NRF said retailers are willing to do their part to improve security, but that banks and card companies must also take major steps to shore up the current fraud-prone payments system.

By Rory Dennis, Amplience

Mumbai – The Indian state of Rajasthan has reportedly prohibited direct foreign investment in supermarkets located there. According to Reuters, individual Indian states are allowed to decide whether or not they want to accept direct foreign investment in local supermarkets, and so far fewer than half of India’s 28 states have done so.

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- The United Entertainment Group (UEG), a global entertainment and marketing agency, has been chosen by HSNi to become its marketing partnership agency of record.

As part of the deal, UEG and its partner UTA (United Talent Agency) will utilize its combined presence in Hollywood and on Madison Avenue to build upon HSNi's ongoing foray into integrating entertainment and retail by building partnerships that consist of celebrity brands, music platforms, television and film collaborations, and like-minded brand partnerships.