News

More Americans are planning holiday-related purchases this year than in 2014, and those who plan to shop will spend more over a longer period of time.

That’s according to the International Council of Shopping Centers 2015 Consumer Forecast, which shows that 90% of Americans are planning holiday purchases this season, up from 82% last year. And overall, 80% of shoppers plan to spend the same or more this holiday season than they did in 2014.

More Americans are planning holiday-related purchases this year than in 2014, and those who plan to shop will spend more over a longer period of time, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Whole Foods is creating a new collection of business applications with a key technology partner that are said to be unlike anything on the market.

That’s a bold claim and to back it up the nation’s leading organic and natural grocery chain is partnering with cloud-based business application provider Infor to develop a new enterprise platform called Infor Cloudsuite Retail.

One of the world’s largest C-store operators is searching for a new CFO as the company expands its reach in the southern United States with a deal to buy 18 convenience stores operating under the Texas Star brand.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. announced that Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Raymond Paré has resigned. It also announced a deal to acquire 18 convenience stores in the Souhwest, which will be converted to the Circle K brand and will continue to sell Shell and CITGO-branded fuel. The deal is expected to close by next April.

The latest retail data breach demonstrates that hackers will victimize whoever is vulnerable.

America’s Thrift Stores, an Alabama-based, 18-store for-profit chain that sells donated items and then contributes a significant portion of the profit to local charities, has been breached, Hackers used malware to compromise the systems of a third-party service provider, which gave them access to the America’s Thrift Stores network.

Top marketers at Neiman Marcus and Home depot were among a group of marketing executives recognized by the CMO Club this week.

The CMO Club, established to celebrate the marketing industry's brightest leaders and to provide a forum to share their successes with other CMOs, determined four winners in various categories.

A key Under Armour executive is stepping down.

Under Armour announced that its COO and CFO, Brad Dickerson, is leaving the company to pursue an unnamed opportunity outside of the athletic performance industry.

Instacart is taking a step beyond partnering with specific retailers to provide same-day grocery deliveries.

The online delivery platform is partnering with food-focused social network Allrecipes to deliver fresh ingredients from Allrecipes’ highest-rated, most popular recipes on-demand. With the click of a button, consumers can add all necessary ingredients from Allrecipes meals and have them delivered straight to their doorstep in as little as one hour.

The ability to point or wave a mobile device in the proximity of a product and access the collective knowledge of the universe is becoming the norm for consumers. Faced with satisfying such mind-bending expectations, brands and retailers are scrambling for solutions.

Brick-and-mortar analytics provider RetailNext Inc. is expanding into the marketing space.

RetailNext has acquired Pikato, http://www.pikato.com/ a Chicago-based company whose cloud-based software enables personal, one-to-one mobile customer interactions.