News

Bentonville, Ark. –- Sam’s Club will launch its Black Friday sale online on Thursday, Nov. 27 just after midnight EST with free standard shipping on Black Friday items. Members can continue shopping in clubs starting at 7 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 28.   

Bellevue, Wash. –- Two in three (66%) consumers purchasing holiday gifts exceeds their budget, typically by $116. According to a new survey of U.S. consumers from Coinstar, this figure rises to 78% of holiday shoppers with children.   Seventy-four percent of holiday shoppers will cut back on indulgences to help afford seasonal gifts. Popular areas to reduce spending among these shoppers include eating out (53%) and entertainment (52%).  

Mississauga, Canada -- Canadian shoppers are off to an earlier start with holiday shopping. UPS Canada's annual Black Friday survey conducted by Leger shows that one-third of Canadians plan to take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.    The findings forecast that 20% of Canadian consumers will travel to the U.S. to shop for Black Friday deals and 32% of Canadian consumers will make online Cyber Monday purchases from U.S. retailers.   

San Jose, Calif. -- PayPal and Braintree have named named the $100,000 grand prize winner of the 2014 BattleHack Series. At the World Finals, competitors were tasked with building an application that incorporates PayPal, Braintree or Venmo APIs.    The grand prize was awarded to the team from Tel Aviv, with two hackers, Shai Mishali and Pavel Kaminsky.   

Bentonville, Ark. –- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is partnering with Holoma Inc. to provide a service that is a Walmart exclusive through the holiday season. Consumers can use the online service to create interactive photo cards and gifts that play a related video.    

Richmond, Canada –- Canadian casual dining chain Boston Pizza has selected the Paytronix Rewards platform as the foundation for its new Boston Pizza MyBP Program. Boston Pizza selected Paytronix because of its expertise in casual dining and integration with both the POSitouch point of sale system and the ONOSYS online ordering system.   

By Ed Stevens, Shopatron   Technology is changing the way people shop. Today’s retail customers typically touch multiple channels before making a purchase--researching products, comparing prices and checking inventory online or via mobile and buying online, via mobile or in-store.   

As a focus area of retail technology, workforce management may not be quite as sexy as CRM or omnichannel commerce. However, a lot of very exciting stuff is currently happening in the world of workforce management, as attendees of the recent KronosWorks 2014 conference in Las Vegas discovered. Here is a brief summary of three of the hottest current workforce management trends.  

New functionality such as interactive maps, enhanced list-making and search capabilities are designed to make it easier than ever to shop Target.

Working with shopper engagement solutions provider Point Inside, Target has upgraded its mobile capabilities ahead of a holiday season in which shoppers will be more digitally engaged than ever.