News

A powerful alliance formed by News American Marketing, Acosta Sales & Marketing and dozens of leading brands and retailers have stepped up again this veterans day to remind Americans to Believe in Heroes.

Believe in Heroes is an innovative cause marketing campaign created by Acosta Sales & Marketing in 2010 to generate awareness of the Wounded Warrior Project and raise funds for the critical services the group provides to veterans. News America, publisher of the SmartSource Magazine coupon insert, signed on to the Believe in Heroes program in 2011.

While hunger relief organizations are quick to point out that one in six American’s suffer from “food insecurity,” the Center for Science in the Public Interest is deriding retailers’ for contributing to the nation’s obesity epidemic.

The most expensive undergarment, a bejeweled brassiere, is back at Victoria Secret this year and, for the first time ever, there are two of them. 

Enchanted holidays are ahead for Saks Fifth Avenue and its shoppers.  On Monday, November 24, Saks’ flagship store in New York will debut An Enchanted Experience – a new show featuring the unveiling of the store's holiday windows and a dramatic light display incorporating the entire building.

The Rockettes will perform on the opening night with a line of 36 dancers on the streets of Fifth Avenue.  The windows and light display presented exclusively by Master Card will continue throughout the holiday season.

Amazon made it even easier to find holiday gifts for technology lovers this year.   The company launched its annual Electronics Holiday Gift Guide (www.amazon.com/giftguide), a curated list of more than 500 top tech gifts of the season which features 3 times more deals than last year, with 10 deals on electronics items offered every day.

Kurt Salmon, a global management consulting firm, has appointed Brian Ehrig partner in its Retail and Consumer Products Group.

Ehrig has spent the last 16 years creating new operational strategies and product offerings for retail and CPG companies, as well as leading transformation projects, including those for new market entrances and involving new retail concepts. 

Customers and Shop Your Way members can shop Black Friday deals at most Sears stores starting as early as 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Sears’ subsidiary Kmart, continuing a 23-year tradition as a destination for early-bird shopping, will open for 42 hours straight, from 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving to midnight on Black Friday.

Retail buyers are no longer bound by the constraints of their desk top work station thanks to new mobile capabilities resulting from TradeStone Software’s acquisition of Leap Ahead Solutions.

Technology leader Samsung Electronics has introduced a new line of small interactive digital displays to replace printed posters and help brands and retailers  drive sales.

The new 22 inch and 10 inch displays Samsung introduced to its Smart Signage product lineup are designed to drive increased interactivity thanks to Wi-Fi connectivity and touchscreen technology.

In the rapidly changing landscape for payments, market leader Vantiv is changing more rapidly than most as evidenced by dramatic growth in its transaction volume, revenues and profits.

Each of those measures surged during the company’s third quarter ended September 30. Thanks in large part to acquisitions, transaction volume in the merchant service group increased 31% which caused net revenue to increase 42% to $297.7 million. The company’s total revenue increased 31% to $697.1 million while adjusted net income increased 21% to $96.9 million, or 49 cents a share.