News

Following a successful test last fall, eBay and U.K. retailer Argos have expanded a click and collect program which addresses a key deficiency of many online-only retailers’ fulfillment strategy.

Deerfield, Ill. – Same-store sales at both Walgreens and Rite Aid increased in June, compared to the same period a year earlier. Same-store sales grew 7.5% at Walgreens and 3.9% at Rite Aid.

Calendar day shifts helped boost same-store sales at Walgreens, while the introduction of new generic drugs had a negative impact. In addition, Walgreens had June sales of $6.28 billion, an increase of 8.9% from $5.77 billion for the same month in fiscal 2013.

New York -- Online menswear brand Bonobos has raised a total of $55 million in venture capital funding, bringing the brand's total funding to $128 million. The company plans to use a large part of the latest investment to quadruple its physical store count, growing from 10 locations to 40 nationwide by 2016, The New York Times reported.

Chicago – Cardtek Group, a provider of software for financial transactions and EMV migration, is launching Cardtek USA. The company’s North American headquarters, based in Chicago, will facilitate the U.S. adoption of Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) technology in an effort to help prevent credit card fraud and data breaches.

The nation’s largest pet specialty retailer could be in for a long summer now that activist investor Jana Partners is pressing for a review of strategic alternatives after acquiring a 9.9% stake in the company.

Hershey’s Chocolate World immerses shoppers in all-things Hershey. The two-level, 13.000-sq.-ft. store, which has a 74-ft. high Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar that visitors can walk through and entrances styled to resemble Hershey’s Kisses, is designed as the ultimate brand experience. Custom chocolate sculptures of the Statue of Liberty, made of almost 800 lbs. of pure Hershey’s Milk Chocolate, and the Empire State Building, made of 1,800 Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars, make idea photo ops.

Swirl Networks, provider of a leading enterprise-class beacon marketing platform, has entered into a strategic relationship with Motorola Solutions. The two companies will work together in the areas of product, sales and services to support iBeacon technology rollouts in large-scale retail environments.

The news follows the recent unveiling of Motorola's MPact Platform for Mobile Marketing, which leverages Swirl to power the beacon marketing capabilities for its indoor locationing platform.

Menlo Park, Calif. – Facebook has agreed to acquire LiveRail, an advertising technology company that helps companies serve better ads in the videos that appear on their websites and apps. LiveRail, founded in 2007, also provides marketers with access to premium video inventory and data to help decide where to show their ads.