News

Grapevine, Texas – GameStop Corp. plans to exit the Spanish market by selling some stores there to U.K.-based video game retailer Game Digital plc, and closing the remaining locations. Under the terms of this proposed agreement, GameStop will transfer ownership of a portfolio of GameStop stores located in Spain with the remaining retail sites winding down in 2014.

GameStop will work closely with Game to ensure a smooth transition and continued support for all of GameStop’s customers in Spain.

Collective Bias is rebranding its annual blogger conference in 2015 and taking the event on the road with a nationwide tour of 11 cities to facilitate increased participation by brands, bloggers and retailers.

Dallas -- Neiman Marcus Group has signed an agreement to acquire the German luxury fashion e-commerce site  Mytheresa.com and Theresa, its flagship Munich store from Christoph and Susanne Botschen and Acton Capital Partners. The transaction is expected to close later this year.

Silver Hill, N.J. - Technology company Edgagement, LLC has released a cloud-based mobile training platform that creates product knowledge forums and modules for informing sales associates. Edgagement measures and scores a selling partner's product knowledge, and delivers actionable responses based on those engagements.

E-commerce as a segment of the total retail market is growing at 30% per year and will reach $2 trillion in sales in 2015, according to e-commerce platform Bigcommerce.

Based on research conducted across its more than 55,000 clients, and combined with third-party research from Sagence, Bigcommerce’s Democratization of E-commerce Report also predicts that the U.S. small and medium business ecommerce market will exceed $100 billion in total sales in 2015.

New York – Ann Inc. is publicly responding to an open letter sent by activist investors Engine Capital and Red Alder on Aug. 25, which urged the company to sell at a substantial premium above current stock price. In a press release, Ann Inc. said its board is “very active and consistently has been, and remains, focused on enhancing shareholder value.”

Ann Inc. also said its board regularly reviews all options and uses a financial advisor to help evaluate them.

Fort Worth, Texas – John Feray, who had served as CFO of RadioShack for less than a year, has resigned from the company, citing personal reasons. Holly F. Etlin, managing director of AlixPartners and longtime RadioShack advisor, has been named interim CFO of the struggling retailer. She previously served as RadioShack's interim CFO from July 2013 to February 2014.

Plug and Play helps bring together retailers and startups who offer specific technology and expertise that can relieve their pain points. In each issue of our Customer Disruption e-newsletter, we will provide you a brief Q&A with the CEO of a Plug and Play startup, explaining how their company assists retailers in succeeding in today’s disruptive customer environment.

This week’s CEO Corner features three questions with Judd Ferrer, CEO of Sparkle.

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