News

Lands' End is looking to further its position as a lifestyle brand by entering the body care category with the launch of its Coastal Living Body Care Collection.   

The body care collection includes lavender and honey blossom scented body lotion, hand cream and body wash, and is available at landsend.com.

The retail and consumer packaged goods industry fared poorly in a recent global ranking of corporate sustainability leaders with the handful of standouts being Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Staples and Campbell Soup Company.

The ranking of 100 companies compiled by Corporate Knights, a media, research and investment advisory company, included only17 U.S. companies and only two retailers. Sweden’s H&M was ranked 64th and Staples was ranked 72nd.

President Obama in his State of the Union address last night said he plans to sign an executive order increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour for workers on new government contracts and asked Congress to approve the same increase for all workers — and the National Retail Federation is not happy.

NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay issued a response ahead of the president’s address.

Retailer and CPG companies’ usage of Facebook to engage with customers helped propel the 10-year-old social media platform to record levels of usage, sales and profitability in the fourth quarter.

Facebook said its daily active users increased 22% to 757 million while mobile daily active users increased 49% to 556 million. Those who used Facebook on a monthly basis increased 16% to 1.23 billion and those who did so monthly via a mobile device totaled 945 million.

Kozy Shack, a 50-year-old pudding brand, is hiring a spokes-grandma to represent the brand nationally in online, broadcast and print advertisements.

The call for applications has been put out coast-to-coast: Pudding-loving grandmas can submit their applications at KozyShack.me/Grandma now through Jan. 31. More information can be found in job postings on Monster, Careerbuilder and LinkedIn.

In celebration of seven straight years winning "Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Home Improvement Retail Stores" in the J.D. Power Home Improvement Retailer Satisfaction Study, Ace Hardware is kicking off its first-ever J.D. Power Award Neighborhood Tour across the country.

New York -- Consumer confidence increased in January for the second consecutive month, rising to 80.7 from 77.5 in December, according to The Conference Board. Economists had expected a smaller increase, to 79. It was the second consecutive increase.

New York -- The fragrance division of Marc Jacobs will open a pop-up in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood that will trade in social currency instead of money. The Daisy Marc Jacobs Tweet Shop will be open during New York Fashion Week, from Feb. 7 to 9.

According to reports, all transactions at the pop-up will be carried out based on customers’ use of the hashtag #MJDaisyChain across Twitter and other social media platforms. Shoppers will be able to exchange each tweet, Instagram post, or Facebook update for a single item.

New York – The Manhattan district attorney’s office has brought federal money laundering charges against two men involved in exchanging Bitcoin virtual currency. According to media reports, Bitcoin exchanger Robert M. Faiella, 52, and Charlie Shrem, 24, the CEO of the Bitcoin exchange company BitInstant, have been charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

Colorado Springs, Colo. -- Accellos, Inc. has released multiple updates to Mile.com, a website dedicated the transportation industry and Prophesy Transportation Solutions. The new website features enhanced content including industry white papers, case studies and videos.

In addition, the new site includes the free commercial mileage tool, Prophesy webMiler.