News

Kurt Salmon: Retailers to speed up holiday online processing/shipping by two days
New York -- Amid a public fight for Thanksgiving weekend foot traffic, retailers are also battling behind the scenes to prepare for peak-season e-commerce orders. According to a new Kurt Salmon survey, retailers will reduce their processing and shipping time frames for multi-item orders by almost two days this holiday season.
Citizen commerce comes to retail
This past summer President Obama turned heads when the White House hosted a curious sounding event called a Maker Faire. The event was created to recognize people known as “Makers” and the global movement they are a part of that is upending traditional product development cycles, the consumer acceptance curve and the retail industry.

In era of app overload Shopfeed eyes simplicity

A new app from Shopfeed is designed to streamline the product discovery process in a world where new products are said to be mentioned 400 million times a day online.

Shopfeed launched its new app to offer the most updated trends from magazines, blogs, and celebrities, all in one place by creating lists from the best of the Web in areas such as style, home, technology and entertainment.
REI names its first-ever chief creative officer

Seattle -- Outdoor outfitter REI has added a chief creative officer slot, and hired Ben Steele to fill the position, effective Jan. 1. Steele most recently served as executive creative director at global brand firm Hornall Anderson in Seattle.
Best Buy opening earlier on Thanksgiving

The dishes from Thanksgiving dinner will barely be dry when Best Buy stores open at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 28, to treat shoppers to an early wave of doorbuster deals.
Report: Retailers unprepared for rise in mobile shoppers

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Mobile shopping is expected to reach new highs this holiday season, but retailers aren’t prepared to meet customers’ mobile needs, according to a new CFI Group study, sponsored by eBay Enterprise.
REI hires first chief creative officer

Leading national outdoor gear and apparel retailer REI named agency executive Ben Steele as the company's first ever chief creative officer.

Steele most recently served as executive creative director at Hornall Anderson in Seattle, a globally recognized brand experience design agency with additional offices in London and New York. He will start in his role at REI's headquarters on January 1, 2015.
Best Buy to open 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving, one hour earlier than last year

Minneapolis -- Best Buy has joined the ranks of retailers that have moved up the time their stores will open on Thanksgiving Day. The consumer electronics giant said Tuesday that some 1,000 of its stores will open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, which is one hour earlier than last year. The stores will close at 1 a.m. Friday before reopening at 8 a.m. on November 28 (Black Friday) and close at 10 p.m. that day.
RetailNext names IBM exec to marketing role

Marc Dietz has joined big data analytics provider RetailNext as chief marketing officer.

Dietz joins RetailNext from IBM where he led worldwide marketing for the company's SaaS portfolio, including multiple acquisitions such as DemandTec, Coremetrics, and Silverpop. Prior to the $440 million acquisition of DemandTec by IBM, Dietz led all marketing efforts at the cloud-based analytics provider for retailers and consumer products companies. He helped grow DemandTec from an early stage through IPO in 2007, and the IBM transaction in 2012, according to RetailNext.
Research: Food shoppers opt for brick-and-mortar over online

Chicago -- Although consumers are changing how they shop for food and beverages, most prefer to make perishable purchases in tradition brick-and-mortar locations.