News

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.

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.

What does your company do?

Moscow - PlayDisplay, a provider of emotional engagement solutions, is releasing SpaceAR, an augmented realty platform that enables the creation of realistic objects of various sizes and whole virtual worlds. Powered by PlayDisplay’s proprietary technology, the solution makes virtual environment obey the laws of physics and interact with the audience in a realistic way.

Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s will be among the first retailers to support the new Apple Pay mobile payment system, which will be available beginning this fall on new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus mobile devices, as well as on the newly unveiled Apple Watch. It’s just part of the company’s expanding omnichannel strategy.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot Inc. will transfer the listing of its common stock from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The company expects its common stock to cease trading on the NYSE effective at the close of business on Sept. 25, and to commence trading on Nasdaq on Sept. 26, when the market opens.

The company will retain its current ticker symbol “ODP” when trading begins on Nasdaq.

New York - SmartFocus has acquired beacon technology specialist TagPoints and social media analytics provider Content Savvy as part of its strategy to develop the U.K.'s first omnichannel digital marketing system. Its platform now offers customer engagement and analytics capabilities across all media channels, so clients can gain deeper insight into consumer behavior.

Six of the nation’s largest food companies and the Walmart Foundation are appealing to Americans with an innovative digital campaign to direct $3.7 million in donations to food banks.