News

Television show host, actress and fashion designer Kelly Osbourne is spotting trends for PetSmart and its new line of creative grooming services, Pet Expressions and joining the specialty retailer’s omnichannel campaign.

The PetSmart salon touts its temporary, pet-safe chalking, stenciling and feathering services to dogs of all shapes and sizes.

Phoenix – TV personality and fashion designer Kelly Osbourne is joining the omni-channel marketing campaign to promote PetSmart’s new “Pet Expressions” line of grooming services. Osbourne will serve as a “trend spotter” and also offer tips and advice on pet grooming.

The Pet Expressions campaign will include videos and postings on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

New York - The eight-day run up to Easter 2014 fell shy of the previous year’s comparable period by 9.3% in traffic and 8.9% in sales. According to data from retail analytics provider RetailNext, there was a 1.2- percentage-point improvement in conversion, which helped generate a sales decline that was less than the traffic decline.

Usage of Facebook’s social media platform continued to expand during the first quarter with mobile advertising now accounting for 59% of the company’s revenue.

Facebook’s revenues grew 72% to $2.5 billion from $1.5 billion and earnings increased to 25 cents a share from 9 cents a share with operating margins expanding to 43% from 26%. The company also highlighted the fact that mobile advertising revenue now accounts for 59% of total revenue compared to 30% during the same period the prior year.

By Erin Nealy Cox, Stroz Friedberg

Things are looking good for Supervalu, which reported fourth quarter fiscal 2014 net sales of $4 billion, up 1.4%, and net earnings of $26 million, or $0.10 per diluted share.

"Fiscal 2014 was an important transition year for Supervalu as we stabilized the organization and set the foundation for our future,” stated Sam Duncan, Supervalu president and CEO. “I am pleased with the direction of our business segments and look forward to the new fiscal year where we can focus our attention on driving sales growth across the organization.”

Procter & Gamble’s third-quarter results met expectations, and the company says that it remains on track to deliver top- and bottom-line growth objectives for the fiscal year.

Net sales for the quarter remained flat at $20.6 billion, including a negative three-percentage point impact from foreign exchange. P&G delivered organic sales growth of 3% for the quarter.

2Checkout, a global online payments provider, has appointed Shawn Budde as CEO. The hire caps a months-long executive search headed by former CEO Tom Dailey, who continues to serve on the board of directors and is an active investor in 2Checkout.