News

Billing plans lift Best Buy sales 3.4%
Solid sales of televisions and mobile phones in stores and online drove better than expected top line growth at Best Buy during the holidays with details on profitability yet to come.

The company said same-store sales grew 3.4% in the United States over the holidays (Nov.-Dec.) as it sold more large-screen TVs and mobile phones.
Bare Necessities taps Experian Marketing Services to optimize omnichannel customer interactions
New York - Online specialty apparel retailer Bare Necessities is using the Experian Marketing Suite to plan, manage, execute and optimize all of its customer interactions in real time across any channel, all from within a single system. The Experian platform integrates customer data from any source and channel into an always-fresh central repository or more effective targeting, triggering and personalization of marketing campaigns.

Target gets Canada government OK to wind down its Canadian operations

New York -- Target Corp. has received official approval from the Canadian goverment to shutter its troubled operations in Canada. The retailer said it has obtained an Initial Order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

The order allows Target Canada to proceed with a court-supervised wind-down of its business and authorizes the company to provide a debtor-in-possession credit facility of $175 million to finance its operations during the proceedings.
Been there, done that: Target follows Big Lots blueprint in Canada

Talk about ripping off the Band-Aid. Target Chairman and CEO Brian Cornell moved swiftly and decisively in deciding to exit Canada, however his actions aren’t without precedent.

Big Lots took similar action after it entered Canada and last fall, a month after Cornell took the helm, the prospects of Target’s exist from the market were explored in the third quarter edition of Retailing Today’s Target Supplier News publication. This is that story:
Retailers aren’t giving consumers what they want

Retailers already knew they had work to do to better meet online shoppers’ expectations, just maybe not as much as revealed by new research from IBM.
Survey: Consumers had a very discounted holiday

Plano, Texas – Consumers enjoyed a very discounted holiday season. According to a new survey from Alliance Data Survey, there was a 12% increase in the number of consumers saving on holiday purchases using rewards, discount offers and coupons.
Report: RadioShack readying for bankruptcy

Fort Worth, Texas -- RadioShack Corp. is reportedly preparing to file for bankruptcy ads early as the beginning of February 2015. According to the Wall Street Journal, RadioShack is currently in talks with several private equity firms about possibly buying its assets out of bankruptcy.
Symphony orchestrates retail start-up win

E-commerce start up Symphony Commerce is facing seriously elevated expectations now that it has been singled out by Shop.org as the company with the greatest potential to transform the shopping experience and positively impact the retail industry.
NRF, Oracle form patent reform coalition

Washington, D.C. - The National Retail Federation (NRF) is launching United for Patent Reform, a new coalition co-chaired by NRF and Oracle and comprised of grocery, hotel, retail, restaurant and technology associations and companies. The coalition will pursue patent reform legislation aimed at curbing abuse of the patent system by “patent trolls.”
Study: Retailers lead in modern marketing

Redwood Shores, Calif. – Retailers are sometimes accused of being laggards when it comes to technology and process adoption, but that does not appear to be the case when it comes to marketing. To assess marketing maturity across industries and demonstrate the business impact of modern marketing best practices, Oracle commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a global study of marketing decision-makers.