News

New York --Forrester Research said Monday it expects U.S. online sales to reach $89 billion in November and December. That's up 13%, or about $10 billion, over a year ago. But Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru noted that the expected growth is not as high as it could be due to a few unique constraints, including fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and capacity constraints in the already constrained carrier networks.

A powerful alliance formed by News American Marketing, Acosta Sales & Marketing and dozens of leading brands and retailers have stepped up again this veterans day to remind Americans to Believe in Heroes.

Believe in Heroes is an innovative cause marketing campaign created by Acosta Sales & Marketing in 2010 to generate awareness of the Wounded Warrior Project and raise funds for the critical services the group provides to veterans. News America, publisher of the SmartSource Magazine coupon insert, signed on to the Believe in Heroes program in 2011.

New York –- Kurt Salmon has named Brian Ehrig as a partner in its Retail and Consumer Products Group.   Ehrig has spent the last 16 years creating new operational strategies and product offerings for retail and consumer goods companies, as well as leading transformation projects, including those for new market entrances and involving new retail concepts. Ehrig's most recent role was director at PwC.  

San Jose, Calif. -- Verifone is making its secure commerce architecture, designed to significantly reduce merchant exposure to large-scale data breaches, available globally. The new architecture is also designed to reduce the certification burden on U.S. merchants, acquirers and other payment providers looking to enable EMV acceptance.  

Retail buyers are no longer bound by the constraints of their desk top work station thanks to new mobile capabilities resulting from TradeStone Software’s acquisition of Leap Ahead Solutions.

Scottsdale, Ariz. -- 360pi and JDA Software are partnering to optimize local pricing recommendations for retailers. This partnership integrates 360pi’s zone-based pricing intelligence for national and private label brands with JDA’s rules-based Strategic Pricing solution, part of JDA’s larger Price and Promotion Management portfolio.   

Amazon made it even easier to find holiday gifts for technology lovers this year.   The company launched its annual Electronics Holiday Gift Guide (www.amazon.com/giftguide), a curated list of more than 500 top tech gifts of the season which features 3 times more deals than last year, with 10 deals on electronics items offered every day.

New York -- Retail sales this holiday season will grow about 4%, according to a survey by brand loyalty and customer engagement consultancy Brand Keys.   In the 2014 Brand Keys Holiday Shopping survey, 54% of consumers indicated they were going to start holiday shopping in November, “a trend we’ve commented upon for a number of years,” said Brand Keys founder and president Robert Passikoff.