News

Amazon drives online urgency with daily deals
Get it before it’s gone is the message Amazon is sharing with holiday shoppers as it looks to drive sales of limited duration “Lightning Deals” supported by enhanced same day delivery capabilities.

Amazon’s countdown to Black Friday and then Christmas involves a strategy of featuring roughly 15,000 products the online retailer promotes as Lightning Deals because of reduced pricing during a tight promotional window.
U.K. convenience store One Stop extends Galleria merchandising rollout
Wolverhampton, U.K. –- U.K.-based convenience chain One Stop has been using Galleria’s Customer Centric Merchandising solution for planogram automation and optimization for a number of years, and is now implementing the Galleria Behavioral Cluster Planning tool. The new solution will provide a better understanding of consumers, assisting One Stop to understand how their categories are being shopped.

Elizabeth Arden swings to Q1 loss, plans Southeast Asia entry

New York -– Non-recurring items, including charges relating to stock issuance and tax valuation, helped swing Elizabeth Arden Inc. to a net loss of $25.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to net income of $1.59 million in the same period a year earlier. Declining North American fragrance sales helped reduce net sales 21% to $270.38 million from $343.6 million.
Regis, Red Wing refresh store systems with Insight

Minneapolis –- Hair salon chain Regis Corp. and specialty footwear retailer Red Wing Shoes both recently engaged Insight Inc. to refresh their store systems.

Regis rolled out the Insight Retail Ready program to refresh its network infrastructure, server, wireless and points of sale in more than 2,000 U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico SmartStyle salons located in Wal-Mart stores.
QVC enhances smartphone, tablet experience

West Chester, Penn. –- QVC will introduce a new in-app mobile feature in the coming weeks that allows customers to make purchases with a touch of their finger. Using Apple's fingerprint sensor technology, Touch ID, the QVC for iPhone app now gives customers the option to log in to their QVC accounts on all iOS 8-enabled iPhone 5S, 6 and 6+ mobile devices using only their fingertip to authenticate their identity.
Lowe’s names innovation and vendor partners of the year

Mooresville, N.C. -- Lowe's Companies Inc. has named 3M, Stainmaster and Truper as the company's 2014 Vendor Partners of the Year. The companies were selected for their commitment to product quality, innovation and customer service.
Best Buy vet to become Tile Shop CEO

Specialty retailer Tile Shop announced a senior leadership transition involving long time CEO Robert Rucker and current COO Chris Homeister.

The company said Homeister, a former Best Buy merchant who joined Minneapolis-based Tile Shop a year ago, would be elevated to the role of CEO effective Jan. 1. He replaces current CEO Robert Rucker who founded the company 29 years ago. Rucker will remain with the company on a full time basis until Aug. 1, 2015 as an advisor and board member.
Rite Aid same-store sales grow 5.5% in Oct.

Camp Hill, Penn. –- Same-store sales increased 5.5% in Oct. 2014 at Rite Aid Corp. compared to the same month in the prior year. Total drugstore sales rose 5% to $2.06 billion compared to $1.96 billion. October front-end same store-sales increased 2%. Pharmacy same-store sales, which included a negative impact from new generic introductions, increased 7.1%.
Burlington warms hearts with warm coats

Burlington has partnered with K.I.D.S./Fashion Delivers and ABC’s Good Morning America for its eighth annual Warm Coat Warm Hearts coat drive, themed around “Families Helping Families.”

The coat drive, which kicks off on Saturday, November 1, 2014, will benefit K.I.D.S./Fashion Delivers, a national non-profit organization dedicated to providing apparel and other products donated by manufacturers and retailers to community charities across the U.S. and throughout the world.
Report: Wal-Mart testing holiday price-matching

Bentonville, Ark. –- Wal-Mart is reportedly testing a price-matching program it may use for the upcoming holiday season. According to the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart is currently piloting price-matching with local competitors in brick-and-mortar stores but may expand the program nationally and include online competitors like Amazon.com.