News

At GameStop, beacons put customers in charge of store promotions
Retailers often use in-store beacons to push promotions to customer mobile phones as they pass by. But video game retailer GameStop Corp., which operates more than 4,200 U.S. stores, takes a different approach.

“In the store, we have multiple pieces signage marking the location of beacons,” said Charlie Larkin, senior director of GameStop Technology Institute, the retailer’s in-house IT development center. “There are seven to 14 beacons across different zones of the store, depending on store size.”
Report: Taiwan tells Alibaba to leave
Hangzhou, China – Alibaba Group holdings Inc. is reportedly saying it did nothing wrong after the government of Taiwan ordered the Chinese e-commerce giant to leave the country by August 2015. According to Bloomberg, the Taiwan Investment Committee gave the order because it says Alibaba tried to skirt Taiwanese restrictions on mainland China-based companies doing business there by registering its local affiliate as a Singapore-based firm.

Survey: Free shipping still drives online purchases

Reston, Va. - Online shoppers around the world want the ability to search and shop on multiple channels and devices, expect to see alternate delivery and payment options, and when it comes to shipping and returns, “free” is a driving factor to complete the sale. According to the second UPS Pulse of the Online Study conducted with comScore Inc., American online shoppers are open to new trends on social media and in-store technologies, making more purchases on tablets than any other market.
StepsAway expands app footprint with Starwood Retail Partners

Los Angeles - StepsAway is expanding the footprint of its mobile in-store deal app with Starwood Retail Partners. The agreement will expand StepsAway’s multi-state footprint, bringing its mobile retail solution to 10 Starwood properties across the US.
Ace makes March colorful

Oak Brook, Ill. – Ace Hardware is trying to make the bleary month of March as colorful as possible for consumers. Ace has launched 31 Days of Color, a month-long omnichannel consumer program featuring daily paint color selections alongside expert design advice and daily giveaways, as well as a nationwide paint makeover sweepstakes.

Every day in March, Ace is unveiling a "Color of the Day" selected from Ace's Clark+Kensington and Valspar paint lines. In addition, Ace’s design experts are providing daily color and design tips.
Visa, Pizza Hut testing ‘connected’ car; order, pay from cars — without phones

New York -- Visa Inc., Pizza Hut and Accenture have teamed up to develop a connected car to test mobile and online purchases on the go. The connected car is expected to feature Visa Checkout (Visa’s online payment service), cellular connectivity, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and Beacon technology deployed at Pizza Hut restaurants to alert staff when the customer has arrived and is ready to pick up the order. Accenture is managing the integration of the technologies.
Dick’s Sporting Goods Q4 profit, sales top estimates; opening 54 stores in 2015

Pittsburgh – Strong omnichannel performance, as well as successful marketing and merchandising execution, helped Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. deliver fourth quarter fiscal 2014 net income beyond previously issued guidance. Dick’s reported net income of $155.5 million, up 12% from $138.6 million a year earlier.

Dick’s plans to open 54 new stores during fiscal 2015, including 45 namesake stores and nine Field & Stream stores.
Publix, Aldi, H-E-B top Temkin Experience Ratings

Waban, Mass. – Publix, Aldi and H-E-B share something besides all operating in the grocery sector. Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, the three supermarket chains earned the highest scores in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks 293 companies across 20 industries.

Joining those firms in the top 12 spots are retailers Chick-fil-A, PetSmart, Amazon.com, Trader Joe's, Papa John's, Walgreens, and Hannaford's.
Stage Stores boosts Q4 profit, will close 10-20 stores

Houston – A dropping cost of sales helped Stage Stores Inc. boost net income 76% to $43.72 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, up from $18.26 million the same quarter a year earlier. Net sales climbed 6% to $524.89 million from $492.54 million, and same-store sales rose 6.4%.

Stage Stores plans to close 10-20 stores and open two new stores during fiscal 2015.
OpenTable celebrates rebrand with omnichannel contest

San Francisco - For the first time in more than a decade, OpenTable, a provider of online restaurant reservations and part of The Priceline Group, unveiled a rebrand. Core elements of the new OpenTable brand include a reimagined company logo mark and tagline, as well as a fresh and current look and feel of the web and mobile experiences for both diners and restaurants.
Deckers Brands rolls out Asia-Pacific e-commerce site

Goleta, Calif. - Deckers Brands is rolling out the company's first multi-brand e-commerce platform in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, Style X Deckers. The service, which has more than 100 SKUs of products from UGG, Teva, Sanuk and Hoka One One is expected to launch in five APAC countries during the first half of 2015.
Metrics in the Matrix: Maximizing digital ad spends for retailers

By Hyaat Chaudhary, CEO, Carbon Media Group

At a time when the traditional separation between online and brick-and-mortar retailers is blurring, brands need to be smarter to win on the digital front. The ability to establish a presence online — and to capitalize on digital marketing and promotions driven by social media and other online tools — is no longer a luxury: it is a necessity.