News

Target employee fitness takes high-tech turn
Target Corp. is going high-tech with efforts to improve employee fitness. All 335,000 U.S. employees of Target will be offered free or subsidized wearable digital activity trackers from Fitbit Inc.

As part of the program, management will have a dashboard that can track individual employees by activities such as how many steps they take in a day. The basic FitBit Zip device will be provided free, or Target will help employees pay for a costlier FitBit wristband device.
Target unveils major store initiative to enhance shopper experience
Target Corp. is launching a major and wide-ranging initiative to improve its in-store shopper experience.

The initiative, called LA25, will be rolled out in 25 Target stores in Los Angeles. It involves everything from more helpful store signage and more modern fixtures to the exploration of RFID technology to help store associates track down missing products. The first wave of stores will be updated in the coming weeks, with a second batch getting a makeover in spring 2016.

Shopify makes social selling easier

The 175,000-plus retailers who sell through the cloud-based multichannel Shopify platform will soon have a new sales channel more easily available.

Shopify has partnered with Facebook to enable Shopify merchants to showcase and sell their products in the new Shop section on Facebook pages.
Amazon primes southern California for fast delivery

Amazon.com is priming consumers in southern California for fast delivery.

Amazon’s Prime Now one-hour delivery service, has expanded to Los Angeles and Orange County, including areas such as Santa Monica, Redondo Beach, Silver Lake and Irvine.

To support this expansion of Prime Now, Amazon has established four Prime Now hubs in southern California to serve its Prime members with superfast delivery on tens of thousands of items including paper towels, chilled and frozen items like milk and ice cream, and televisions and Kindle devices.
Shoppers who work on their fitness get rewards at Sports Authority

The Sports Authority is teaming up with Under Armour and MapMyFitness on a ground-breaking new fitness rewards program.

The retailer says rewards members soon will be able to earn retail rewards for completing activities within the MapMyFitness app.
Study: Contactless mobile payment set to grow

NFC-enabled contactless mobile payments, such as those enabled by smartphone-based digital wallet services like Apple Pay and Android Pay, currently make up a tiny fraction of card transactions. However, a new study from Indian mobile solutions provider Mahindra Comviva suggests contactless mobile payments are set to grow quickly.
Multimedia: Rebecca Minkoff, Los Angeles; Starbucks, Panama City, Panama

On-trend apparel brand Rebecca Minkoff has opened a 4,600-sq.-ft. tech-savvy flagship — its largest space to date — on Melrose Avenue.

Starbucks Coffee Company's first store in Panama is located in Panama City, in the Street Mall shopping center.

Click here to see slideshows of Rebecca Minkoff's "store of the future" concept in Los Angeles and Starbucks' new Panama City location.
Nicole Miller meets buy impulse across channels

Effectively meeting the customer’s impulse to buy the moment it occurs is a crucial part of retail success.

Specialty fashion retailer Nicole Miller is meeting that impulse not only when it occurs, but where it occurs.

Nicole Miller is using the PowaTag mobile platform to allow customers to make digital purchases directly from social media and email promotions, as well as from its e-commerce site.
Target faces class action suit

It’s official – Target Corp. will face a class action lawsuit related to its November 2013 data breach.

A federal judge in Minnesota has granted class action status to a suit brought by five financial institutions – Umpqua Bank, Mutual Bank, Village Bank, CSE Federal Credit Union and First Federal Savings of Lorain.
Target joins the Instacart bandwagon

Target is entering the grocery delivery fray by offering its customers same-day delivery of groceries and other items through Instacart as a way to challenge Amazon and other retailers.

Target announced Tuesday it would begin testing an on-demand grocery delivery service via Instacart that initially will only be available in parts of Minneapolis, where Target is headquartered. But the retailer noted in a release on its blog A Bullseye View that the two companies are already exploring plans to expand the service into additional areas and markets in the future.