OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

Suffern, N.Y. -- Ascena Retail Group said Thursday it has appointed Jeff Gerstel as president of Dressbarn, and named George Goldfarb as president of its Maurices brand, both effective immediately.

The new executives will report to David Jaffe, president and CEO of Ascena Retail Group.

Gerstel joined Dressbarn in 2006 as senior VP operations and most recently served as executive VP and COO.

Goldfarb joined Maurices in 1985, was named CFO in 2003, and most recently was its executive VP and COO.

Woonsocket, R.I. — Looking to stay on the cutting edge of mobile commerce, CVS/pharmacy has made the entire CVS.com catalog available to shoppers through its mobile site (m.cvs.com), so CVS/pharmacy customers easily can browse, order and buy products anywhere, anytime from their smartphones.

In addition, the CVS Photo mobile site features fully-optimized print ordering and purchasing with easy checkout.

New York City -- The retail sector continues to edge tentatively toward recovery, buoyed by a strong start to the holiday shopping season, but several obstacles stand in the way of sustained progress in 2012, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s North America Year-end Retail Outlook.

New York City -- J.C. Penney launched a strategic alliance with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to create a comprehensive retail experience featuring Martha Stewart products, know-how and advice.

Beachwood, Ohio -- DDR Corp announced the launch of ValuText, a location-based, mobile marketing service specifically designed to drive sales and productivity at the company's prime assets. ValuText couples physical retail assets with state-of-the-art, location-based mobile marketing. The program allows shoppers to connect with desired retailers as they enter the shopping center to avail themselves of real-time sales and promotions.

New York City -- The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in November to 103.7, up from the revised figure of 102.42 in October. The November figure is up 6.4% from the same month a year ago.

Seattle -- Starbucks has racked up 26 million mobile transactions since it launched its mobile payment program in January. Currently, the top five U.S cities for Starbucks mobile app adoption are New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, and San Jose.

In the first nine weeks of the program, there were 3 million transactions and in comparison for the nine week period starting in October, there were 6 million transactions, demonstrating a significant jump in customer adoption and use, the company reported.

New York City -- Netflix, Google and Amazon top a list of the 10 “simplest” U.S. brands, according to Siegel+Gale’s second annual Global Brand Simplicity Index.

(Netflix was picked as the simplest brand in the survey after it announced price hikes but before the announcement of the formation of Qwikster, which was subsequently reversed. In the wake of these missteps, mass subscriber departures followed.)