News

A new online resource created by the International Housewares Association (IHA) delivers fresh content on emerging home trends and housewares products.

The site, IHAInspiredHome.org, offers compelling information and ideas across a broad spectrum of home lifestyle categories, enabling consumers to connect directly with brands and companies that can meet their housewares needs.

Wilmington, Del. -- Total online Thanksgiving Day sales will top the $1 billion mark this year for the first time ever, increasing year-over at least 23.4%, with most purchases made after 6 p.m., according to BestBlackFriday.com, a website providing information regarding holiday sale pricing, shopping tips and news.  

Ensuring the roughly nine billion people who are estimated to inhabit the planet by 2050 have enough to eat is a big challenge. That’s why Land O’Lakes has introduced new program to fund big ideas from future food leaders.

New York -- Holiday shopping is going to start early this year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers’ latest consumer tracking survey. About 35% of consumers have or will have started their holiday shopping by the end of October. Roughly three out of five shoppers will begin shopping by Thanksgiving this year, and by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend 86% will have started making purchases.   

Even if Dollar General doesn’t prevail in its efforts to acquire Family Dollar the company’s expanding distribution infrastructure is positioned to support future growth.

Dollar General said it plans to build the 13th distribution center in its nationwide network in San Antonio. The facility will measure more than 900,000-sq.-ft., employ roughly 530 people and serve more than 1,000 stores when it opens in October 2015, the company said.

Amazon’s 50 fulfillments centers and 15 sortation centers are looking to hire 80,000 seasonal works to cope with an anticipated surge in U.S. holiday sales.

Amazon, like other retailers, touts the seasonal positions as an opportunity to get in on the ground floor with the company and establish a foundation for a career. Last year, Amazon said it converted thousands of seasonal employees into regular, full-time roles after the holidays, and expects to do the same this year.
 

Milpitas, Calif. –- SGI, a provider of data analytics solutions and an SAP global technology partner, has introduced SGI UV for SAP HANA.  It is a purpose-built, in-memory computing appliance for growing environments running the SAP HANA platform.   

Regional discounter Shopko has added a range of omnichannel capabilities to its retail operations just in time for what is expected to be the most digital Christmas ever.

Shopko announced the rollout of expanded omnichannel capabilities it said would provide shoppers more access to products, the ability to buy products on-line and ship them to store for free. The capabilities were extended to 310 of the company’s locations.