News

Menlo Park, Calif. – Facebook may not have anywhere near the retail sales volume of Wal-Mart, but in at least one important financial metric the social media network has overtaken Wal-Mart. According to the Associated Press, Facebook has knocked Wal-Mart out of the Standard & Poor’s list of the top 10 most valuable stocks.

Rebel flags are now a hot commodity after numerous retailers yanked Confederate-related merchandise from their stores and websites.

Wal-Mart, Sears and eBay announced their decisions Monday, and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called on legislators to remove the flag from the statehouse grounds. After doing so, sales of Confederate flags spiked on Amazon to claim first, second, and third place on the site's list of biggest sales gainers in the previous 24 hours. Prices ranged from under $2 to nearly $16 per flag.

Redwood City, Calif. – The Shopular mobile shopping app is rolling out two platform upgrades -- Shopular Products and Shopular Curated Content. Shopular, available for free download from iTunes and Google Play, geo-targets consumers with time- and location-sensitive deal alerts and savings from their preferred merchants from more than 40,000 retail locations across the U.S.  

Minneapolis – Furniture retailer Room & Board has aligned its online and in-store customer experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s predictive digital marketing capabilities. Room & Board has improved the customer experience and delivered more relevant information, which in turn has increased the average order value by 16% and delivered a 2,900% ROI payback during a two-month period.

This has resulted in a significant increase in online sales and improved loyalty.

As competition for online sales becomes ever more aggressive, Sam’s Club has unveiled a "shocking" new promotion to attract shoppers to its website.

The retailer is launching a program called Shocking Values, which will offer daily deals at SamsClub.com with up to 60% off regular retail prices on brands consumers know and love.

Los Angeles – Creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi is making three key executive changes. Julie Michael has been named president of Team One, Saatchi & Saatchi's fully integrated premium, luxury and aspirational brand agency, effective Aug. 1.

Seattle – Amazon.com is reportedly using a proprietary machine learning solution to analyze online customer reviews and present newer and more relevant reviews first. According to CNet, the system takes into account factors such as newness, whether the review was written by a verified Amazon purchaser and how many customers found the review helpful.

Staples is getting an early start on back-to-school season with the debut of new products and promotions.

The retailer wants to help parents get their kids ready for the new school year with the hottest trends ranging from the latest graphic or camouflage patterns in new colors, to products that provide a life-changing impact or exclusive products that were designed with the help of students.