News

Early this week, Target began to generate traffic to its e-commerce site ahead of Cyber Week. They offered REDcard holders an exclusive online Black Friday preview sale, and Cartwheel app users Black Friday-like deals.

Cartwheel is the digital savings program that allows guests to choose in-store offers and claim savings directly from their smartphones, which Target began rolling out earlier this year.

Meijer is extending Cyber Monday into a weeklong sales event on Meijer.com, offering customers deep discounts and free shipping on orders of more than $75. The Midwestern retailer will offer Cyber Week savings from Sunday through Dec. 7.

By Andrew Kokes, global VP, marketing & product management, Sitel

One of the most significant trends in customer engagement over the past several years is the rise of social media outside marketing and inside customer service. Social media is moving beyond contacts and interactions to a culture of community and collaboration for the most engaged and customer-centric companies.

Lowe’s has integrated Point Inside's StoreMode mobile shopper engagement platform into its mobile app to improve the in-store customer experience, just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Shoppers at all Lowe's locations will be able to use the Product Locator capability to search for products and instantly see where they are located on a detailed store map using Lowe's iOS and Android mobile apps or Lowe's mobile-optimized website.

New York -- Fitch Ratings expects total U.S. retail sales growth in the 4% range in 2014, a modest increase over expected 2013 figures that reflects slight improvement in both the employment rate and real wages.

Fitch expects 2013 holiday sales to grow in the 3%-4% range, in line with The National Retail Federation forecasts that November and December sales will increase 3.9% year over year to $602 billion.

Fortified by growing e-commerce sales and time spent across digital channels, the U.S. retail industry will grow its digital ad spending more rapidly this year than in 2012, according to new figures from eMarketer.

By the end of this year, eMarketer predicts, U.S. retailers will have increased digital ad budgets by 15.7% to $9.50 billion, following growth of 14.5% last year.

Woonsocket, R.I. - CVS Caremark has entered into an agreement to acquire Coram LLC, the specialty infusion services and enteral nutrition business unit of Apria Healthcare Group Inc. for approximately $2.1 billion. Coram provides infusion therapies and nutrition services to more than 20,000 patients each month, primarily through home infusion as well as a national network of more than 85 locations, including more than 65 ambulatory infusion suites.

A search is underway for a senior executive to lead Family Dollar’s supply chain efforts following the departure of supply chain EVP Jeffrey Macak who resigned from the company after just two months.

In a brief statement, Family Dollar said Macak resigned for personal reasons effective immediately. Macak joined Family Dollar in early September of this year after a 13-year run at Bed Bath & Beyond where he served as vp of global supply chain.