News

Target has been ramping up digital efforts for a few years now, but its Digital Vendor Marketing (DVM) team is putting the retailer on the mobile games map.

Target sees mobile games as an opportunity to directly reach customers and showcase the brands and vendors on its store shelves.

“We’re really focused on creating great games for guests that are simple, yet challenging enough to make you want to play again and again,” says Dawn Block, who oversees the DVM team as a VP of Target.com and mobile.

Jack Link’s plans to purchase Unilever’s meat snacks business, primarily sold under the BiFi brand (Germany, Benelux, Austria and Switzerland) and the Peperami brand (UK and Ireland). The sale is expected to close by the end of March.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction, subject to customary closing conditions, also includes the manufacturing facility in Ansbach, Germany.

Woonsocket, R.I. – CVS MinuteClinic will switch to the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) called EpicCare. MinuteClinic currently uses its own proprietary EMR.

EpicCare will support MinuteClinic's evidence-based model of care and facilitate connectivity with health care providers nationwide that currently use Epic, including many major health systems, hospital networks and physician groups currently affiliated with MinuteClinic. MinuteClinic's full deployment of EpicCare is expected to take 18 months.

Fort Myers, Fla. – Chico’s FAS Inc. is reportedly building a mobile shopping app for the iOS and Android platforms. According to the Wall Street Journal, the app will integrate with iBeacon location sensors on shelves.

This app, currently in pilot testing, would reportedly use iBeacons to notify customers who have opted in when they are near items that fit their purchase history. Associates would then use iPads to update the customer’s history.

Facebook has reached an agreement to acquire WhatsApp, a cross-platform mobile messaging company, for a total of approximately $16 billion, including $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. The agreement also provides for an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp’s founders and employees that will vest during four years subsequent to closing.

Ingolstadt, Germany -- Media Markt – Saturn Holding Netherlands, the Netherlands subsidiary of German electronics retailer Media Markt, has deployed Pricer ESLs in all 45 stores in the Netherlands. This investment in electronic shelf label (ESL) technology is part of Media Markt – Saturn Holding Netherlands’ omni-channel concept, which is based on an active and flexible pricing policy, and on having matching sales prices at any time in the company's brick-and-mortar stores and its online shops.

Sam's Club has named David Badeen as VP health care. Badeen will be responsible for pharmacy, OTC, optical and hearing centers, as well as third party contracting and pricing. In this new role, he will report directly to Jill Turner-Mitchael, SVP health and wellness.