News

Rugged boot manufacturer Wolverine has opened a permanent store in New York's Nolita at 254 Elizabeth St. The company decided to give the retail space a try following its successful New York pop-up venture in fall 2012.

Global Payments president Jeffrey S. Sloan has been named as the company's CEO by the company’s board of directors. He succeeds Paul R. Garcia, who has been the company’s CEO since June 1999 and Chairman since October 2002.  

Under Garcia's leadership, Global Payments became a publicly traded company in early 2001. At that time, Global Payments generated annual revenues of under $350 million, nearly all of which was sourced in the United States. Today, Global Payments is a multinational corporation with nearly $2.5 billion in revenues for fiscal year 2013.

Washington, D.C. – The National Retail Federation welcomed a new study that shows retailers have passed along the majority of the savings from debit card swipe fee reform to their customers, and that the resulting increase in consumer spending has boosted job creation across the country.

But the study also shows that benefits for consumers and the economy could have been much larger if the Federal Reserve had set its cap on debit swipe fees lower as directed by Congress.

Pittsburgh – Internet coupon provider MyCoupons.com is launching a responsive design website. The new website presents a cleaner, contemporary, responsive design that adapts itself to all digital platforms: web, tablet, and mobile.

The new infrastructure also improves the user experience with better and faster search capabilities for the thousands of coupons and promotional codes available on the site from more than 9,000 online merchants.

By Bill Loller, VP, IBM Smarter Commerce

The mobile revolution has ushered in a new era in retail shopping, transforming the experience into a quick, easy and hyper-personal exchange which is all conducted from the touch of a mobile device. As the trend and spending power behind online shopping continues to grow, brick-and-mortar locations are tasked with finding ways to incorporate mobile technology into the in-store experience in order to stay relevant, competitive and alive.

Plano, Texas – Financial woes continue to plague embattled J.C. Penney Company as hedge fund Perry Capital cut its stake in the retailer by nearly half, selling nine million shares of Penney stock last week.

Washington, D.C. -- More than half (55%) of all retail-related Internet time in June 2013 originated on smartphones and tablet devices combined, compared with just 45% originating from desktop devices. According to a report produced in partnership by the National Retail Federation (NRF) with comScore and The Partnering Group and released at Shop.org's Annual Summit, smartphone Internet usage in June 2013 totaled 44% of retail Internet minutes, up from 17%in June 2010. Tablet internet usage accounted for 11% of total minutes on retail sites.

Deerfield, Ill. – Net earnings for Walgreen Co. soared in both the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2013. Net earnings during the fourth quarter totaled $657 million, an 86.4% increase from $353 million in the same quarter a year ago, while net earnings for the full year rose 15.2% to $2.5 billion, from $2.1 billion.

Los Angeles – Halloween shoppers age 18-34 are seeking online promo and coupon codes. According to the new Trend Report on the shopping behavior of young adults for the upcoming Halloween holiday from BluePromoCode.com, 49% of young adult Halloween shoppers use promo codes when purchasing costumes online and 57% stated their decision to purchase a costume was effected by the availability of a retailer’s coupon code.

New York -- Masayoshi Son, billionaire founder of tech/telecom company SoftBank Corp., has reportedly won bidding for the Tiffany Building in the Ginza shopping district of Tokyo. According to Forbes, Son paid about $36 million for the 10-story glass building.

The Tiffany Building houses the flagship Japanese store of Tiffany & Co. Son did not comment on why he bought the building.