News

Gymboree colors the world for kids
Gymboree is launching a colorful new campaign aimed at increasing awareness of a cause near and dear to the heart of its core customers.

The retailer has started a new effort to raise money in Gymboree and Gymboree Outlet stores to fund arts and crafts requests made by teachers on DonorsChoose.org. The goal is to fulfill classroom requests in every county where there is a Gymboree retail location.
Marbles smartens store and site operations with Salsify
Chicago – When a retailer includes the word “brain” right in its name, a certain level of operational intelligence is expected. For 30-plus-unit specialty educational toy and game retailer Marbles: The Brain Store, smartening up operations has included organizing product data on the Salsify product information management platform to provide merchandise intelligence across the organization.

PayPal up in first trading day, has big plans

San Jose, Calif. – PayPal Inc.’s first day of trading as an independent public company on the Nasdaq stock exchange was a good one. The digital payment platform closed at a price of $40.47 on Monday, July 20, up 5% from the opening price of $38.39.

In 2014, when it operated as a division of eBay Inc., PayPal processed $235 billion in total payment volume and generated more than $8 billion in revenues. The company serves more than 169 million active customer accounts in 203 markets around the world.
Meijer surveys back-to-school shoppers

With back-to-school shopping on the horizon, parents are looking to get their shopping started early in the hope of getting the best deals, according to Meijer’s customer survey.
BucketFeet seeks better store understanding with RetailNext

Chicago – Specialty footwear retailer BucketFeet, which launched online in 2011 and entered the world of brick-and-mortar retailing with its first stores (called “studios” in 2013), is seeking to better understand studio shoppers. BucketFeet is partnering with store analytics provider RetailNext to help extend its brick-and-mortar service and shopper experience capabilities.
XRC Labs: Designing the future of retail innovation

Free flowing venture capital dollars in the digital age have made business incubators and accelerators commonplace, but until now the retail and consumer packaged goods industry didn’t have one it could call its own.
Dunkin’ Donuts creates summer soundtrack

Canton, Mass. - Dunkin' Donuts is partnering with Spotify to celebrate summer musically. The campaign kicks off July 21 with a summer concert series that will span five cities, featuring five different emerging artists at pop-up concerts in high-traffic public areas.

The first show, today in Philadelphia, features Marian Hill. Additional artists to be determined will perform in Miami, Chicago, New York and Boston throughout the coming weeks.
Back-to-school is omnichannel at JCPenney

JCPenney Co. is launching a back-to-school marketing campaign that covers all the bases of omnichannel retailing.
Amazon competitor prepares for Tuesday takeoff

Hoboken, N.J. – The countdown is on for the latest competitor to Amazon.com to take off. Jet.com, which hopes to compete with the Amazon Prime membership service using “profit-free” pricing, has an online clock on its homepage counting down to launch at 6 a.m. ET on Tuesday, July 21.
Major grocery chain files chapter 11; sells stores for $600 million

Montvale, N.J. – The rumors are true. As expected, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Inc. (A&P) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In a brief statement on its website, privately held A&P says it has secured financing of $100 million and voluntarily filed for chapter. A&P has also entered agreements to sell 120 stores for $600 million and will close more of its 296 stores in the near future.