News

The revelation this week that Target chief marketing officer Michael Francis had jumped ship to become president at JCPenney was a surprising development that sucked some of the oxygen out of the retailer’s Minneapolis headquarters. Target is all about marketing and Francis was instrumental in shaping some of the most interesting customer communications the marketing world saw during the past decade. He was so highly thought of that earlier this year he was tapped to lead Target’s entry into Canada, arguably the company’s most significant longer term growth driver.

WASHINGTON —The National Retail Federation announced that it is pleased with President Obama's efforts to implement three pending Free Trade Agreements. 

Washington -- The National Retail Federation announced that it is pleased with President Obama's efforts to implement three pending Free Trade Agreements. 

MINNEAPOLIS — Michael Francis, EVP and CMO of Target, and the person charged with leading the retailer's expansion into Canada, has left the company, Target announced Monday.

“We would like to thank Michael for his many contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavors” said Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, president and CEO.

LOS ANGELES — The state of the economy continues to impact consumers' holiday shopping decisions as many plan to spend less or the same this year.

Dodgeville, Wis. -- Lands' End  announced the promotion of Tim Martin to COO and CFO and Chris Kolbe to brand president.  

Martin most recently served as senior VP, CFO. Kolbe most recently served as chief merchandising and design officer for Lands' End.

Indianapolis -- Hhgregg has officially launched its new e-commerce website. The retailer’s key development partners for the new site include Rosetta, the implementation partner; IBM, the ecommerce platform provider, and Adobe for imaging, recommendations and site analytics.

The new site features enhanced functionality, delivers on the company’s “We Help” brand promise and brings hhgregg’s superior in-store experience online.

New features include:

With its chief marketing officer, Michael Francis leaving to take on the role of president of JCPenney, Target is temporarily without an executive to head up its expansion into Canada, which should come as good news to Walmart Canada, which recently announced some leadership changes of its own.

Former Asda executive and Walmart Canada CEO David Cheesewright has a new role that opens up some intriguing growth possibilities, given his new responsibilities include oversight of geographic areas where Walmart doesn’t currently operate stores.