News

Oklahoma City -- Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt announced the appointment of Geoff Goodman as its new president. Goodman most recently served as VP of brand excellence for Dallas-based CiCi's Pizza.

In his new position, Goodman will oversee operations, product development, brand management and franchise development. Reese Travis will remain CEO and focus on the company's strategic growth.

INDIANAPOLIS and LOS ANGELES  — In what is being touted as the first iBeacon-wearable integration at retail, Marsh Supermarkets and inMarket have announced the deployment of a closed-loop iBeacon platform, enabling shoppers with smartphones and Apple Watch to have their favorite apps come alive in-store.

New York -- As the use in-store mobile payment becomes more pervasive, consumers require increased education on the performance and ease of use of mobile pay services, a recent survey by Verifone of U.S. consumer attitudes suggested.

New York -- Sports retailer Academy Sports + Outdoors has implemented Oracle Retail solutions to support growth by streamlining merchandising and inventory operations.

The 185-store chain has targeted sales growth in-store and online and, according to Oracle, as retailers manage an increasingly more complex array of customer segments and channels, success hinges on simplifying and optimizing mission-critical operations such as pricing, inventory management and allocation.

Matthews, N.C. -- Family Dollar is urging its shareholders to support a buyout offer from rival discounter Dollar Tree with less than two weeks remaining before a vote on the pending deal.  Family Dollar shareholders are scheduled to vote Jan. 22. on whether to accept the Dollar Tree offer.

Canton, Mass. -- Dunkin' Brands Group, the parent company of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, announced that in 2014 its U.S. franchisees opened a total of 422 net new Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins.

Lincolnshire, Ill. --- Zebra Technologies Corporation released survey results that revealed nearly all retailers are ready to make the changes required to adopt the Internet of Things (IoT). The survey, conducted in October 2014 by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Zebra Technologies, also showed that a majority of retailers believe IoT will be the most important technological initiative of the decade.

Some of the key findings from the survey include:

San Luis Obispo, Calif. -- Canada’s Home Hardware chain has jumped on the in-store pickup bandwagon, tapping Shopatron to complete an implementation of Canada’s largest dealer-owned hardware, lumber, building materials and furniture cooperative’s in-store pickup platform.

New York -- Family-owned luxury apparel retailer Mitchells Family of Stores has partnered with ThoughtWorks Retail to reenergize the luxury shopping experience through its e-commerce and brick-and-mortar channels. The newly launched, customized responsive-design website, developed by ThoughtWorks, allows the Mitchells loyal customer base to access personal shopping profiles via M World, a platform where customers can see their own virtual closets of wardrobe purchases made both in the physical store or on the e-commerce site.

New York -- Vestis Retail Group, which operates Bob’s Stores, Eastern Mountain Sports and Sport Chalet, has selected Epicor Software Corp.’s SaaS solutions to power its expanding retail sporting goods apparel and equipment business.