News

Lowe’s Canada to reward customers with air miles
Toronto -- Shoppers at Lowe’s stores in Canada will soon be able to turn their purchases into miles toward air travel.

Lowe's Canada and LoyaltyOne Co., owner and operator of the Air Miles Reward Program, announced an agreement to launch the reward program with an anticipated full roll-out to Lowe's stores in Canada beginning on Dec. 1.
Canadian Lowe’s customers will be able to earn Air Miles reward miles at all Canadian Lowe's retail locations and for purchases online at Lowes.ca.
European payments player launches in U.S., and its first retail partner is…
New York -- A Swedish-based payments company that allows mobile shoppers to pay for a purchase after has been delivered has entered the increasingly competitive U.S. payments market.

On Tuesday, Stockholm-based Klarna announced its official U.S. launch, with Overstock.com as its first major retail partner.

Amazon retooling its Prime program?

Amazon.com is reportedly doing some experimental tinkering with the two-day shipping guarantee for its paid Prime loyalty program.
Dollar Tree profits from Family Dollar deal

The acquisition of Family Dollar in the second quarter led Dollar Tree Inc. to report quarterly sales that were up more than 48% from a year ago.

For the second quarter ended Aug. 1, Dollar Tree reported sales of $3.01 billion, boosted by $811.6 million in sales from Family Dollar. Same store sales rose 2.7%. Dollar Tree reported income of $138.9 million. The retailer’s earnings were 67 cents.
Guitar Center promotion is a hit

Guitar Center has crowned the winner of its Cover Me promotion, which aims to jump-start the career of amateur musicians.

The retailer along with DJ Zedd have selected Tyler Acord, aka Scout, as the winner of Guitar Center's Cover Me contest.
HEB joins Instacart bandwagon

Regional supermarket operation H-E-B wants to make its customers lives’ better and believes its new relationship with Instacart accomplishes that objective.

H-E-B is the latest retailer to reach an agreement with grocery delivery service provider Instacart to offer home delivery in the Austin and Houston markets.
Lowes Canada targets frequent fliers

Shoppers at Lowe’s stores in Canada will soon be able to turn their purchases into miles toward air travel.
Get your Gilt on at new showroom

In the latest example of clicks to bricks, online upscale discounter Gilt.com has launched a new service at its New York office that sounds a lot like what retailers call a “store.”
This e-retailer has digital innovation in the bag

Ebags is quickening the pace of its digital innovation by teaming up with Iterate Studio to create two new tech research labs.

Recognized by retailers as an early pioneer of drop-ship (1999), customer product reviews (1999), and A/B split testing (2000), eBags' goal is to pioneer game-changing services by embracing the new digital frontier which includes mobile services and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Belk goes omnichannel for back-to-school

Belk Inc. looks like it has found a winner in a just-completed omnichannel back-to-school promotion.

Working with digital marketing provider HelloWorld, Belk allowed customers to both submit and vote on “looks” such as dorm room, game day and night out, created with Belk merchandise.
Kroger Co. names a new key executive

Kroger already has a good relationship with shoppers, but the retailer is looking to elevate its brand even further by making a key hire in reputation management.

The Kroger Co. announced it has named Jessica C. Adelman to serve as Kroger's group vice president of corporate affairs, effective Nov. 1.
NRF’s new playbook offers holiday help

Retailers will reveal their 2015 holiday strategies in the weeks ahead and as they do so the National Retail Federation is offering a powerful new resource filled with industry best practices to benchmark against for this year and beyond.

The newly released document is called the 2015 Holiday Planning Playbook and was compiled by top retailers over the course of the past year who served on various NRF councils focused on retail industry disciplines.