News

The International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association has a new chairman and four new board members.

Ohio State University assistant vp for business advancement Rick Van Brimmer was elected chairman of the trade group, filling a position that was held the past two year by Maura Regan with Sesame Workshop. Other key moves saw LIMA board member James Slifer with The Joester Loria Group named vice chairman and Pete Yoder of Cartoon Network elected to the executive committee as a liaison to the board.

Sports Authority held its first-ever Sports Authority Football Field Day on Sunday for more than 2,000 attendees in partnership with USA Football’s Heads Up Football initiative. The free, on-field football training camp and vendor expo were open to the public and took place at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

Less than a month after former Walmart.com CEO  Joel Anderson joined Five Below as president, the discount retailer’s EVP of merchandising Jeffrey Moore has resigned.

Five Below, which bills itself as the leading retailer of trend-right, high-quality, extreme-value merchandise for pre-teens, teens and beyond, spoke highly of Moore who is leaving to spend time with his family.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- The use of mobile applications for shopping purposes doubled in the past year, with 41% of consumers actively using mobile apps while shopping, according to CFI Group’s Retail Satisfaction Barometer survey.

The study found that 67% of 18-34 year-olds use mobile apps during their shopping experience. While Millennials are typically the focus of retailers' mobile efforts, most consumers of all ages indicated that they have two to four shopping apps installed, proving that mobile isn't a generational-only trend.

Boston -- Swirl Networks, provider of an enterprise-class beacon marketing platform, announced that it has entered into a strategic relationship with Motorola Solutions. The two companies will work together in the areas of product, sales and services to support iBeacon technology rollouts in large-scale retail environments.

This announcement follows the recent unveiling of Motorola's MPact Platform for Mobile Marketing, which leverages Swirl to power the beacon marketing capabilities for its indoor locationing platform.

London -- Displaydata announced Tuesday it was named a 2014 Partner in Transformation for Sears Holdings Corp. The company received the award for delivering Sears' innovative digital display technology that supports its Shop Your Way program in stores.

Displaydata's responsiveness, hands-on delivery and commitment to supporting Sears' deployment in hundreds of stores to date has built a strong collaboration and partnership between both organizations. The award was recently presented at Sears Holdings' 2014 Vendor Summit.

Chain Store Age recently spoke with Alison Paul, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP and retail and distribution leader, about the expanding role of the CFO in retail organizations:

How has the role of the CFO in retail organizations changed?

Los Angeles – Newegg is partnering with BitPay to accept Bitcoin payments on Newegg.com. The company’s registered customers can now pay using Bitcoin through BitPay.

With BitPay’s platform, Newegg can accept Bitcoin payments and also handle refunds and payment exceptions using the Bitpay Bitcoin API. When completing an order on Newegg.com, customers can now select “Bitcoin” from the list of available payment methods during stage two of the order process.

Carle Place, N.Y. - 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. will begin accepting Bitcoin payment this fall. The retailer will accept Bitcoin across its portfolio of gifting sites, including 1-800-Flowers.com, FannieMay.com, Cheryls.com, ThePopcornFactory.com, 1-800-Baskets.com, FruitBouquets.com, and Stockyards.com.

Burlington, Vt. - Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Truck is launching a month-long tour in New York City July 1-28 and in Portland, Oregon, July 1-29, giving away free ice cream scoops in an omnichannel promotion. Customers can follow the trucks on Twitter to see where they are located and also send tweets to win direct delivery of free ice cream.