News

Online retailer Bluefly is looking to leverage Pitney Bowes’ technology and shipping services to help expand the online global reach of their brands to international buyers around the world.

The U.S. apparel and accessories e-tailer is using Pitney Bowes’s global ecommerce software and international shipping services to help simplify international transactions, improve the online shopping experience for consumers and facilitate international growth.
 

It has been about five months since the Target data breach made the vulnerability of retail POS data a hot topic. Investigation has since shown the Target breach did not involve POS terminals. However, high-profile thefts of customer payment card data from Target and other retailers including Neiman Marcus, Michaels and Sally Beauty Supply have highlighted the need for U.S. retailers to adopt the global Europass, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) standard for accepting payments from cards that store consumer information on secure embedded microchips, rather than on magnetic stripes.

Frito-Lay North America has announced the winners of its "Create to Celebrate" Black History Month art contest, which invited consumers to submit an original piece of art celebrating African American achievement in Black History.

To celebrate, Frito-Lay will donate $20,000 to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). The donation, which will help support the future educational needs of artists and students across the nation, was driven by thousands of consumer votes.

New York -- Google is reportedly expanding its same-day Google Shopping Express service to Manhattan and Los Angeles, according to the New York Post.

The service strives to make same-day deliveries from Fairway, Walgreens, Target, Costco and other retailers to anyplace in Manhattan for $4.99 per store, the report states.

The article says that the service, first launched in San Francisco last year, will expand to Brooklyn and Queens in the coming months.

When it comes to success in retail, the old mantra of “location, location, location” has been largely replaced by “customer, customer, customer.” That was one of the themes of the SPECS workshop session, “It’s All in the Demographics.”

“Yes, it’s about demographics, but it’s more than demographics. It’s about the lifestyle embedded in the demographics,” explained Bill Stinneford, executive VP retail, Buxton, Fort Worth, Texas, which provides customer analytics for site selection, marketing and e-commerce.

Fast-casual pizza concept, PizzaRev, is positioned for growth

PizzaRev opened a concept test kitchen in Los Angeles in April 2012. Today, it has nine company-owned restaurants with 19 more company and franchised stores on the way.

Who would argue that mobile has not been an absolutely transformative platform for retail? Communicating with consumers on a nearly 24/7 basis on a computing platform they embrace throughout their lifestyle has transformed retail marketing. E-commerce is a long ago metaphor, replaced almost entirely by m-commerce as smartphones and their larger cousin tablets overwhelm the old PC experience.

New York -- Andrea Weiss, a 30-year retail veteran, and Bill Mirabito, a digital innovator, have teamed up to form The O Alliance, a consulting firm designed to help retailers better target today’s, multichannel digitally-savvy shoppers.