News

USA Today honors Porch.com CEO
Porch.com CEO Matt Ehrlichman has been named the USA Today Entrepreneur of the Year for 2014.

Key criteria of the award included exhibiting significant growth this year and solving a consumer problem.

Ehrlichman won the honor after a team of USA Today editors sorted through 10 finalists.
With help from friends, consumers can win Mellow Mushroom contest
Atlanta – Pizza chain Mellow Mushroom is partnering with beer brand Stella Artois to provide rewards to consumers who post photos on Twitter and Instagram, with a little help from their friends. By posting “usies” (“selfies” with a friend) using the hashtag #MellowStellaContest, Mellow Mushroom followers are entered in a contest featuring a getaway and other prizes.

Canada Post – Cyber Week deliveries rise

Ottawa, Canada – The U.S. retail tradition of ‘Cyber Week’ is spreading north. New data based on parcel volumes compiled by Canadian mail service Canada Post show that e-commerce shipments as a result of Cyber Week this year have doubled since 2012.
Banana Republic shows procrastinators some love

Banana Republic is taking an innovative approach to last-minute holiday shoppers this year: top-notch perks and special discounts for procrastinators.

The company will be offering a “Procrastinators Event,” a special promotion for last-minute shoppers, from Dec. 17-22.
Survey – Small discounts prompt in-store pickups

Toronto, Canada - Today’s consumers increasingly shop online with home delivery, eliminating a valuable trip to the store where they can be enticed to make additional purchases. However, a LoyaltyOne survey of 1,000 American consumers indicates a discount on the online purchase for picking up in store (as has been experimented with by Target and Best Buy) will encourage a majority of customers to select that option.
Report – Google studies color effect on consumers

Mountain View, Calif. – Google Inc. is reportedly studying the effect color has on consumer purchase decisions, among other issues. According to Reuters, the company has found a clear link between color and employee satisfaction with their workspaces, and is still in the early stages of research.
Macy’s offers high-tech wallets, briefcases

New York – Macy’s Inc. is exclusively offering a line of high-tech-enabled wallets, briefcases and handbags from Royce Leather. The designer collection features the Royce Leather Freedom Briefcase; a security bag with DNA based fingerprint technology that enables a single user to access the bag.
Sherwin-Williams paints store No. 4,000

After announcing new partnerships with HGTV and Lowe’s, as well as three consecutive quarters of record growth, Sherwin-Williams is celebrating another milestone.

The company announced it is opening its 4,000th store in Sewickley, Pa.
Retail cyber security a CEO priority

Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) have become more common on companies’ senior leadership teams. They might be in even higher demand after the highly publicized data breaches at Target, Home Depot, Neiman Marcus and other companies in the past couple of years (see a timeline of data breaches in the past decade here). In fact, Neiman Marcus just hired its first CISO, Sarah Hendrickson.
Study – Indian e-commerce market to reach $51 billion by 2017

Washington, D.C. – The recent spate of investments in Indian e-commerce ventures appear to be based on solid expectations. According to a new report from MarketResearch.com, the e-commerce market in India will reach $51 billion by 2017, growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 43% during 2012-2017.