News

The WhiteWave Foods Company has named Kevin C. Yost as president of the company’s newly acquired Earthbound Farm business. Charlie Sweat, previously CEO of Earthbound Farm, will move into an advisory role to ensure a smooth transition.

The rest of the Earthbound Farm management team will continue to serve in their current roles.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in December 2012 versus December 2013 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. Last year, Home Depot did not run any circular promotions for the month of December and instead chose to coast on Web and email promotions. These electronic offers featured 50%-off promotions, as well as one-day-only sales. Although this online-only behavior was not repeated, Web and email remained Home Depot’s main focus: a short circular with a four day duration was run on Dec. 1 with a Cyber Monday theme.

Destination Maternity Corp. is thinking big. The world’s largest retailer of maternity apparel is bullish on its superstore format, with new locations in Paramus, N.J., and Virginia Beach, Va. The Philadelphia-based company has an estimated 35% to 45% share of the U.S. maternity market.

The two new stores vary in size and have different layouts, as well as some merchandising variations. But both are designed as customer-centric, one-stop shopping resources. And both share a common vision.

Unusually high community engagement, user-driven initiatives, mobile growth and a love of all things vintage — that’s the formula behind the growth of ModCloth.com, which hit $100 million in sales just a decade after it launched out of co-founder Susan Gregg Koger’s dorm room back in 2002.

Gamers will be heading to the cloud this summer when Sony Computer Entertainment marks the U.S. debut of its streaming game service branded as PlayStation Now.

Tech providers unveil key trends for 2014

Technology trends are rippling through the retail real estate universe. Among the most important are new apps that dig deeply into data and automate tasks such as site selection, identifying and diagnosing underperforming stores and much more. Then there are apps that analyze what is going on inside shopping centers and stores. Technology is also helping to address a major change in lease accounting rules.

Trend #1

How we use technology is changing

Sooner or later, disruption occurs in almost every sphere of human activity. While the radical upending of long-established norms and conventions is not always a positive development, oftentimes disruptive forces enable a burst of creativity and innovation that move an industry toward new levels of success and achievement.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Beginning in mid-2014, Domino's customers who have a Pizza Profile on their Domino's mobile app, as well as the Ford SYNC in-car connectivity system, will be able to use Ford SYNC to place their saved 'Easy Order' in just a few simple, voice-activated steps.