News

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- HSN announced a complete re-launch of the company's digital channels - elevating the customer experience by making the retailer's platforms faster, more efficient, and even more social. The re-launch is part of a comprehensive, multi-platform digital redesign that has been in development for more than a year. It enhances the customer experience, not just on the top 10 most trafficked e-commerce site HSN.com, but across all mobile devices, including tablets, android and Windows 8.

Atlanta – Predictix announced that Crate and Barrel is implementing a broad suite of planning solutions from Predictix, including merchandise financial planning/merchandise financial management, assortment planning and item planning.

The Predictix solutions are being deployed across all Crate and Barrel brands — Crate and Barrel, CB2 and The Land of Nod — and will go live this quarter as part of a strategic plan to optimize the retailer's planning processes.

New York -- Total holiday retail sales increased 3% to $579.8 billion, below the National Retail Federation s projected forecast of 4.1%. Non-store holiday sales grew 11%, below the 12% growth forecast by Shop.org. (The NRF sales figures exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants.)

“For over six months, we’ve been saying that the fiscal cliff and economic uncertainty could impact holiday sales. As the number shows, these issues had a visible impact on consumer spending this holiday season,” said Matthew Shay, CEO, NRF.

Waltham, Mass. -- Profitect announced Monday that Weis Markets has selected its cloud-based Profit Amplification solution, a pattern-seeking predictive analytics tool, for deployment throughout the chain.

Weis Markets will initially deploy the Point of Sale and Inventory modules of the Profitect suite.

New York -- Monday launched with heavily attended keynote addresses at the National Retail Federation’s 102nd BIG Show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.
    
Former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan shared his views about the state of world politics, joined by moderator and Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren, who also is the outgoing chairman of the NRF.
    

NEW YORK — The National Retail Federation has elected Saks chairman and CEO Stephen I. Sadove to chairman of the NRF board of directors and chairman of its executive committee. Sadove succeeds NRF’s chairman, Terry J. Lundgren, who is chairman, president and CEO of Macy’s.
 

NEW YORK — Yomari and Predictix will join forces to deliver merchandising and analytics solutions to large and midsize retailers.

Yomari is a leading independent professional services company focused exclusively on analytics, business intelligence and data warehousing for the consumer value chain. Its customers include Dressbarn, Gander Mountain, Petco, REI and Williams-Sonoma.

ATLANTA — Cloud-solutions developer Predictix has named John Simon as its new CEO.

Simon will be charged with helping accelerate growth as Predictix continues developing and delivering solutions to retail companies. The move comes on the heels of the partnership announced between Predictix and analytics-based consumer chain solutions developer Yomari.

NEW YORK — Online retailers are focused on retaining existing shoppers by giving them a better online shopping experience.

As shoppers become increasingly connected, online retailers are developing strategies to increase web conversion and loyalty.

According to the 2013 Shop.org/Forrester Research Inc. State of Retailing Online survey, 51% of retailers surveyed say their top priority for 2013 is site optimization, including checkout optimization, alternative payments, user experience, testing and product detail page enhancements.

NEW YORK — Global technology startup Synqera has launched Simplate, an in-store point-of-sale terminal that provides real-time business-to-consumer media communications, at the National Retail Federation’s 102nd Annual Convention & EXPO.

Synqera describes Simplate as one of the first interactive POS terminals that uses big data, such as customer preferences, behavior, demographics and purchasing information, to provide personalized media communications for on-the-spot marketing.