News

San Diego - While showrooming, the process of researching in-store before buying online, remains popular among 76% of consumers, the emerging trend of webrooming, or researching online before buying in-store, is even more common, representing 88% of shoppers. According to “The Rise of Webrooming: A Changing Consumer Landscape,” a report from Interactions, 75% of webroomers believe they can find the lowest in-store price, while 72% prefer online product comparisons and 71% prefer online product research.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has appointed Karen Cate as CFO and Jeff Schroeder as VP of operations.

Cate was the VP, controller of Trader Joe's Company, where she was responsible for the integrity of financial processes and reporting for the retail grocery store, warehouses and distribution operations. She has also held financial management positions for Sun Microsystems, Nestlé USA and Avery Dennison Corporation.

Washington, D.C. - Retail sales rose ever so slightly in April, putting a damper on hopes of a sharp uptick in economic growth in the second quarter. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, retail sales, which include categories such as automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants, rose 0.1% in April, following a revised 1.5% increase in March that ranked as the biggest since March 2010.

At its Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Tampa, IBM announced ‘IBM ExperienceOne,’ a new integrated portfolio of cloud-based and on premise offerings that help clients quickly deliver deeper, more valuable customer engagements by bringing together marketing, sales and service practices.

Reston, Va. -- A report by comScore showed that, in the first quarter, desktop-based e-commerce rose 12% year-over-year to $56.1 billion, marking the 18th consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and 14th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

M-commerce spending on smartphones and tablets added $7.3 billion for the quarter, up 23%, for a digital commerce spending total of $63.4 billion in the first quarter.
 

Kohl’s and Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions have partnered with Plug and Play for their newest program, Plug and Play Retail, to engage with startups that align with their developing technology initiatives.

Plug and Play Retail is the first brand and retail-focused startup accelerator bringing together a round-table of complementary partners to guide the direction of the program and help decide the startups accepted.

Armonk, N.Y. – IBM is releasing 'IBM ExperienceOne,' a new integrated portfolio of cloud-based and on premise offerings that help clients deliver deeper, more valuable customer engagements by bringing together marketing, sales and service practices. Built on best practices, IBM ExperienceOne delivers a set of pre-defined engagement solutions delivered with IBM consulting services and powered by its WebSphere Commerce, Customer Digital Experience and Enterprise Marketing Management software.

JDA Software Group, a leading global supply chain planning and execution solutions provider, has appointed Baljit (Bal) Dail, a technology executive who has served as JDA’s chairman since May 2013, as interim CEO, effective immediately, replacing Hamish Brewer, who is leaving the company.

Dail will lead the search for a permanent successor to lead the company in the next phase of its strategic growth plan.