News

By Doug Brown

With the use of smartphones and other mobile devices continuing to grow, more and more merchants are looking for a way to capitalize on a communication device that many people never put down. And, as the leaders in this area are finding, mobile loyalty and payment incentive programs possess many benefits for chain stores.

Tie mobile and incentives together

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney Co. on Tuesday said that it was making “solid progress” in its turnaround as it reported a smaller decline in same-store sales for September, compared to August. The company also said it expects that it will have ample liquidity at year end.

While Penney’s September same-store sales fell 4% over the same month last year, they showed an improvement of 580 basis points compared with August.

The National Retail Federation has retained New York-based digital agency Rain to create digital shorts that launched last week on NRF’s industry campaign site, “This is Retail.”

Interview Day — a series of short, humorous videos — targets recent grads and young adults who are worn out competing for jobs in a challenging economy.

Dallas -- To help retailers better understand and act on consumer behavior in the fast changing retail market place, SAP AG announced the SAP Customer Activity Repository application, a new retail data repository powered by the SAP HANA platform. 

Specialty retailer Sport Chalet is promoting its yoga apparel and gear to experienced yogis and first-timers alike.

OfficeMax has unveiled a Services Center in stores nationwide to provide business owners with essential operations support.

The OfficeMax Services Center offers an extensive portfolio of more than 40 services designed to relieve administrative burden and assist businesses with critical needs, including web design and maintenance, 24/7 On-Call Tech Support, printing and document management, marketing materials, shipping, credit card and payroll processing, human resource services and legal assistance.

The Container Store is turning to Borderfree, a leading global e-commerce platform, to help it expand its international e-commerce reach in time for the holiday season.

Previously only accessible to consumers in the U.S. and Canada, the Container Store’s online product offerings are now available to consumers in Australia, India, Mexico, Germany, France, Japan, Switzerland, Russia and the United Kingdom.

Sales trends at J.C. Penney are improving and year end liquidity is now expected to exceed $2 billion following a recent stock offering, the company said Tuesday morning during an uncharacteristic mid-quarter update on its operating performance.