News

Ebates has enlisted Epsilon, an Alliance Data (ADS) company, to help the leading online cash back shopping platform enhance its global email marketing services.

Per the multiyear agreement, Epsilon will provide robust, targeted email marketing services focused on driving sales and creating a more personalized experience for customers across Ebates' suite of websites and rewards programs including Ebates.com, Ebates.ca, Ebates Korea, FatWallet.com and Pushpins.

Washington, D.C. -- Import volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 12.4% in March 2014 as retailers begin to stock up for the spring and the summer season, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.

The buzz and hype surrounding 3D printing can make it hard to separate fact from fiction, but one thing is for sure: 3D printing has the potential to transform shopper expectations and retail supply chains.

White House | Black Market creates a welcoming ambience at its store in Yorkdale Centre, Toronto, the company’s first location outside the United States. The 3,063-sq.-ft. space has the look and feel of an intimate boutique.

Oak Brook, Ill. – U.S. same-store sales dropped 1.4% at McDonald’s Corp. during February 2014, with global same-store sales declining 0.3%.

Other segment same-store results for McDonald’s during the month included a 0.6% increase in Europe and a 2.6% decrease in Asia-Pacific/Middle East/Africa (APMEA). The company cited severe weather and challenging industry dynamics in affecting its U.S. same-store sales performance.

Essen, Germany – German supermarket chain Aldi Nord has selected the SAP for Retail solution portfolio to support its dynamic growth and modernize its retailing. The standard enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution will replace the company’s previous in-house system and will be used to manage retail processes at all company locations, from orders and warehouse management to store deliveries.

With Amazon’s customer retention rate hovering north of 90%, customer loyalty initiatives are understandably at the top of every retail CMO’s to-do list. Of course, it’s harder these days to find room in consumers’ wallets for another membership card, what with American households belonging to an average of 22 loyalty programs, according to the loyalty research unit Colloquy. But Colloquy also found that each household’s activity was concentrated on fewer than half that number of programs.

New Albany, Ohio – Abercrombie & Fitch Co. reportedly plans to shift its marketing and merchandising focus from teens to college students. According to Bloomberg, Abercrombie executives said they will shift marketing, assortments and pricing to appeal to the collegiate market.