News

REDMOND, Wash. — Lowe's is engaging the services of Microsoft to help improve customer service. The company has agreed to implement Microsoft Office 365 across more than 1,745 stores, 200,000 employees and its corporate offices in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Office 365 will help the home improvement retailer improve customer service by providing collaboration tools to increase communication among its stores and employees.

MINNEAPOLIS — Best Buy, which at its recent shareholders' meeting said it would offer more technology services, has announced that it is expanding the Best Buy Mobile brand and store-within-a-store concept into 14 Five Star stores throughout Nanjing, China, this summer.

The expansion of Best Buy Mobile into the Chinese market is the first evolution of Global Connect, a partnership that was formed in November 2011 between Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse.

Los Angeles -- TruConnect Mobile announced that Walmart is now the exclusive provider of its prepaid mobile broadband service Internet on the Go, powered by the MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot.

The service plan has no monthly fee and the data balance never expires (if used once a year).

Goodlettsville, Tenn. -- Dollar General Corp. said Wednesday it is offering $450 million in senior notes due in 2017.

The retailer said it plans to use the proceeds, along with cash on hand and possible other borrowings, to redeem its outstanding senior unsubordinated notes.

Citigroup, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and KKR are serving as joint book running managers for the offering. BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo Securities, Fifth Third Securities, HSBC, KeyBanc Capital Markets, and US Bancorp are co-managers.

Downers Grove, Ill. -- Survey results released Wednesday by CompTIA, the non-profit association for the IT industry, found that innovations in information technology continue to transform the retail sector, with digital signage, payment processing, customer engagement and other solutions playing increasingly important functions.

Seventy-two percent of retailers surveyed rate technology as important to their business, CompTIA's Retail Sector Technology Adoption Trends Study revealed. That figure projects to increase to 83% by 2014.

I mentioned briefly in my last column that I’ve been a little puzzled by what seems to be an industry-wide reluctance to design and develop, and in many cases redevelop centers into, true mixed-use venues. It’s not that our industry doesn’t get excited about mixed-use spaces — they clearly do. But, something is getting lost between the glamorous articles and design concepts, and the real-world execution.

Washington, D.C. -- The Conference Board, in its monthly sentiment index released on Wednesday, said that confidence among U.S. consumers dropped in June for a fourth consecutive month, reaching a five-month low.

The research firm’s sentiment index fell to 62, from a revised 64.4 in May. The slide in confidence raises the risk that the recently revealed slowdown in hiring will cause households to curb spending.

The median forecast of 69 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected the U.S. confidence index would fall to 63.

New York -- A study released Wednesday by Deloitte found that smartphones – which already influence 5.1% of all retail store sales in the United States – are expected to impact 19% of total store sales, amounting to $689 billion, by 2016.

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — Virtual Piggy, a provider of a technology platform that allows children to shop online in a parent-controlled environment, has formed agreements with sports retailers Spyder Surf and Tahoe Mountain Sports.

OMAHA, Neb. — Country music artist Kellie Pickler has been named the national spokesperson for the ConAgra Foods Foundation Hunger-Free Summer program. The joint effort between the ConAgra Foods Foundation and Feeding America helps provide children with access to nutritious meals, especially in the summer.