News

A new ad campaign from Kohl’s featuring several feel-good family spots positions the retailer as a destination where shoppers can find their “Yes.”

Los Altos, Calif. -- Shoppers using the Catalog Spreee iPad app read 60% more catalogs and viewed 39% more catalog pages when compared year-over-year (first quarter 2014, compared to first quarter 2013). In addition, Catalog Spree’s new quarterly iPad Shopping Trends Report indicates half of all shoppers visited a retailer's website directly from the app to view further product details.

Coupons.com is rolling out a service that lets consumers use the Coupons.com website or Coupons.com mobile apps for iOS and Android to add digital coupons to their credit or debit cards from Visa, MasterCard or American Express for automatic redemption at checkout.

Offers are available for restaurants and specialty retailers such as Gap, Old Navy, The Body Shop, Tilly's and Travelocity. The service incorporates technology from the company's recent acquisition of Yub that links offers to payment cards.

Mumbai, India – Leading Indian political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said in its official election manifesto that it will ban all foreign direct investment into the Indian supermarket sector if it wins a majority stake in the upcoming parliamentary election. BJP is widely expected to take majority control of parliament and the prime minister seat in India’s May 2014 elections.

By Gary Ambrosino, TimeTrade Systems

Retailers are bending over backwards to meet the growing demands of today’s ever-connected consumer; however, most are still coming up short. The traditional rinse-and-repeat practices — slashing prices, offering free shipping and promoting exclusive products — aren’t winning over fickle consumers or helping gain a leg up on the competition.

Meijer has selected U.S. Vision as its exclusive vision center in its stores moving forward in an effort to enhance its retail healthcare services across the Midwest.

U.S. Vision, a separately owned and operated company based in Glendora, N.J., is currently a tenant in 50 Meijer stores in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, and has plans to open 19 more vision centers in Meijer stores this year. All of its vision centers will be renamed "Meijer Optical" by the end of the month.

Stamford, Conn. -- GE Capital Retail Bank announced a long-term extension of its agreement with American Eagle Outfitters to continue providing private-label credit card programs for online, mobile app, and store purchases made at any of the 856 American Eagle Outfitter and 115 Aerie locations across the U.S.

As part of the seven-year agreement, GE Capital’s Retail Finance business will continue to manage the American Eagle Outfitters credit card program, which began in 1996.

SPAR Group, a leading supplier of retail merchandising and other marketing services throughout the United States and internationally, has appointed Panos Mastrogiannis as chief information officer and executive officer.

The company also provided shareholders with an update on its technological advances.