News

Promotion and pricing intelligence leader Market Track has acquired Competitrack to bolster its digital and electronic media capabilities and provide richer insights to retailers and consumer goods companies.
 
Chicago-based Market Track provides clients with retail promotion, real-time e-commerce and pricing intelligence solutions in North America while New York-based Competitrack is a leading provider of directly placed product and image data across 22 media channels including TV, print, radio, online display, online video, social and mobile advertising.

First Data Corporation, a leading global e-commerce and payment processing provider, has acquired Perka, a smart loyalty platform.

Perka became a First Data subsidiary on Oct. 4, and continues to operate autonomously as an innovative entrepreneurial company led by its current management and product development team. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
 

RadioShack is taking its new concept store to Philadelphia, Detroit and Fort Worth, but the specialty retailer is going retro for its hometown location in downtown Fort Worth’s Sundance Square.

The Philly location can be found in Bakers Square Shopping Center at 2920 Roberts Ave., and the Detroit location in Gateway Marketplace at 1347 W. Eight Mile. And set to open Oct. 30, the Fort Worth location will be the first new concept store to feature a custom design.

Toys ‘R’ Us plans to launch an online version of its “The Great Big Toys"R"Us Wish Finder” holiday catalog Nov. 2. The retailer is also launching The Toys"R"Us Wish List Wizard, a free iOS and Android app that turns parents’ smartphones into a scanner and lets kids scan items they want in-store for automatic inclusion on a digital wish list.

According to ShopperTrak, a leading provider of shopper analytics, the busiest holiday shopping days will occur between Dec. 20 and Dec. 24, and retailers should prepare accordingly.

Additionally, with a shortened shopping season and only four weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas — down from five last year — retailers must be ready to capture holiday spending during a narrower window of time.

Sears Holdings is considering spinning off its Lands’ End and Sears Auto Center brands as part of a wide-ranging strategic review of its business. The company’s Sears Canada subsidiary has also sold five Canadian store leases to Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited for about $383.4 million.

Quantum Retail Technology, a retail-focused supply chain management and inventory optimization software solutions provider, has named Mark Halverson as the company’s VP of professional services.

Halverson will oversee the full range of Quantum Retail's client program management, solution deployment and delivery, support and management of client partnerships during the implementation cycles.

Salt Lake City -- Consumers value salesperson expertise above all else, but they often find such expertise lacking, according to eXperticity’s first-ever Retail Buying Experience survey. The study found a striking expertise gap among sales associates in five retail areas: outdoor, sporting goods, hunting or fishing, health and nutrition, and prestige beauty.

 When asked to rate which services consumers most desire and value from retail sales associates, the top four were:

1. Product knowledge (73%);

New York -- J.C. Penney Co. on Monday reassured investors that sales trends are improving and reaffirmed its forecast calling for positive same-store sales results in the third quarter, Reuters reported.

The comments were made by Myron Ullman, Penney’s CEO, at the Women's Wear Daily conference on Monday.

Toronto -- Hudson’s Bay Company has appointed Michael Crotty as executive VP, chief marketing officer, Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor. He will be responsible for the overall marketing strategy for Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor.

Crotty has more than 25 years multichannel retailing and brand management marketing experience  For the last 10 years, he has held progressively senior positions at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and, most recently, Nordstrom.