News

Delhaize America’s new CIO is confident the company will be able to drive sales growth by leveraging technology.

Retail technology veteran Michael Laurenti was named chief information officer at Delhaize America and will assume his new responsibilities on November 17. He most recently served as CIO at the privately held 300 unit Belk Department Stores chain. Prior to Belk, he worked at Family Dollar, Linens 'N Things and Toys "R" Us. Laurenti succeeds Deb Dixson who spent four years at Delhaize America and announced her departure earlier this year.

Plenty of retailers pay dividends, but none comes close to matching the track record of Stanley Black & Decker.

The company declared a 52 cent a share dividend for its fourth quarter and in so doing set a mark no retailer is likely to ever attain.

Online referral service provider Angie’s List plans to increase the size of its headquarters in Indianapolis and increase the workforce to 2,800 people within five years.

Angie’s List, a review drive enterprise that helps facilitate transactions between more than 2.8 million consumers and service providers in 720 categories, said it plans to grow its base of employees from 500 in 2011 to roughly 2,800 by 2019. The company said the expansion was enabled in part by an attractive incentive plan from the City of Indianapolis and State of Indiana.

Finish Line and IBM have created a new mobile app to enable the operator of more than 1,000 athletic footwear and apparel stores to fulfill its omnichannel vision.

Finish Line said the new app is focused on providing services and conveniences that reward its Winners Circle loyalty program customers with points and perks, reinforce brand interactions, improve customer service and sales and also provide  timely information about customers’ favorite product releases.

Walmart’s newest omnichannel initiative is on display at a supercenter in Northwest Arkanas where the retailer has installed lockers for online order pickup.

The Maurices division of Ascena Retail Group is rolling toward a footprint of more than 1,000 locations with a new round of stores opening in advance of the holidays.

Maurices plans to open sixteen locations before November 10 giving the Ascena subsidiary a total of 938 locations. The company contends the U.S. and Canada can support more than 1,300 locations.

Leading cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty named veteran financial industry executive Michelle Collins to its board.

Costco has extended its product offering to shoppers in mainland China by establishing a storefront on the Tmall e-commerce platform operated by Alibaba Group.

Smart machines, mobile and digital business transformation all weigh heavily in tech research giant Gartner’s top 10 predictions for IT organizations and users in 2015 and beyond.    Here is an overview of Gartner's top 10 trends:     1) By 2018, digital business will require 50% fewer business process workers and 500% more key digital business jobs, compared with traditional models.  

Price and promotion tracker Brand View has joined the Revionics’ Competitive Data Partner program to enhance the competitive intelligence available to retail clients.