News

San Diego – For the month of August 2014, net sales at PriceSmart Inc. increased 7.3% to $206.7 million, from $192.6 million in August a year earlier. Same-store sales for the month increased 2.3%.

PriceSmart also announced the planned opening dates for the three warehouse clubs currently under construction in Colombia. The Bogota warehouse club is planned to open on Oct. 29; the Pereira warehouse club is planned to open on Nov. 13; and the Medellin warehouse club is planned to open on Nov. 26.

Recently, I was out shopping with my children and we saw a pay phone bolted to the wall near the checkout line of a store. It didn’t appear to be operational, but there it stood. “What’s that?” my 11-year-old daughter asked.

New York – Almost all retailers consider Big Data to be important, according to a new survey from Accenture Analytics. When asked how important is Big Data to their organization, 94% of retail executives answered “important,” 58% responded “extremely important,” and 36% responded “important.”

Adidas has enlisted marketing technology company Unruly for its latest #predatorinstinct campaign, and as part of the partnership is piloting Unruly’s new In-Feed format. The new format adapts to the look and feel of a Web page in real time across the Open Web.

Morrisville, N.C. - Overall, August 2014 was a mixed bag for various online retailers with Amazon, Google Shopping/CSE, Search and other third-party marketplaces continuing to grow and EBay feeling the impact of its new EBay Defect Rate (EDR), which has made it tougher to obtain top-ranked seller ratings and significantly reduced inventory for sellers of used/refurbished items. According to monthly analysis from e-commerce solutions provider ChannelAdvisor, major online retailers reported the following same-store sales results in August.

Target is integrating with the new Apple Pay mobile payments service so shoppers can pay using the Target app from iOS.

Vancouver – E-commerce company Elastic Path Software Inc. has secured $5.88 million in equity investments led by BDC Venture Capital IT Fund, with participation from Yaletown Venture Partners and individual investors. The company will use the funds to support development for its patent-pending enterprise commerce products.

CVS Health has named Mary Langowski EVP for strategy, policy and market development, effective Oct. 14.

Langowski will join CVS Health from international law firm DLA Piper where she serves as the chair of the Health Care Policy and Regulatory Practice and the co-chair of the Food and Beverage Sector.