News

New York -- Increasing smartphone ownership is taking more consumers down the digital shopping route, while many shoppers plan to frequent local small businesses when visiting stores this holiday season. According to the Deloitte Annual Holiday Survey overall smartphone ownership has risen to 61% of respondents from 42% two years ago.

Talk about an appropriate spokesperson. Monster, a leading manufacturer of headphones and personal audio equipment, has enlisted retired basketball superstar Dr. Shaquille O'Neal to endorse the company’s products across multiple categories.

"I am excited that we are collaborating with Shaq to market Monster's products. His bigger than life personality, coupled with his keen marketing experience and sense is a great fit for the Monster brand," said head ‘Monster’ " Noel Lee.

By Christian Davies, [email protected]

Meet the most complex shopper of all time – Generation Z. By 2020, today’s 14-19 year olds (Gen Z) will be the largest group of consumers worldwide, making up 40% of the U.S., Europe and the BRIC countries, and 10% in the rest of the world. The needs and behaviors of this group will influence the future of mainstream retail.

Target created A Bullseye View a little more than two years ago as an innovative digital platform to achieve a deeper level of engagement with those who have an interest in all things Target. Billed as a behind-the-scenes magazine, A Bullseye View was recently relaunched to incorporate new features and functionality to build upon its original mission.

New York -- Patagonia has selected 7thonline, a New York-based omni-channel merchandise and assortment management solution provider to help the retailer better match production supply with dynamic market demand to drive greater customer satisfaction and increased profitability.

LeapFrog Enterprises is rolling into the holiday with its strongest product lineup ever but concerns about consumer spending have the leading educational entertainment company tempering its view of fourth quarter sales.

Montreal -- Canadian footwear retailer Groupe Yellow has selected the Epicor Retail Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to support the organization’s retail operations. Yellow has also signed on as the first SaaS customer to deploy Epicor Retail Sourcing and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) as a hosted solution.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens had October sales of $6.37 billion, an increase of 6.1% from $6 billion for the same month in fiscal 2013. Same-store sales improved 5.8%.

Calendar day shifts negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.3%age point, while generic drug introductions in the last 12 months negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.7%age point. Walgreens opened 14 stores during October, including four relocations, and closed two.