TECHNOLOGY

Survey: Millennials don't mind if retailers track their purchases
Millennials are on board with personalized marketing. While security may be a concern with older shoppers, 70% of millennials are comfortable with retailers tracking their purchasing and browsing behaviors if it means they’ll receive more relevant communications, according to a report from SmarterHQ, a multichannel behavioral marketing platform.
Visa and Uber take rewards program nationwide
Uber riders nationwide can now earn credits for shopping and dining under a rewards program with Visa. The program, Visa Local Offers with Uber, launched last year in the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets. It has been relaunched to be made available to Uber riders across the country. The program is open to Uber riders with an eligible U.S.-issued Visa card on file in the Uber app.

Walmart in deal with Google to offer voice-activated shopping

Walmart is determined not to cede any ground to Amazon. In a partnership that takes direct aim at the online giant and its Alexa voice-controlled device, Walmart is teaming up with Google to offer hundreds of thousands of items available for voice shopping via Google Assistant, the search giant's online shopping platform that lives on its smart speaker Google Home and other smart devices. It will be the largest number of items currently offered by a retailer through the platform, according to Walmart.
Survey: Parents in no hurry to finish up back-to-school shopping

Retailers still have time to capitalize on their second biggest selling season of the year. Only 45% of households with children in grades K-12 had completed of their shopping as of early August, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. That’s down from 52% at the same time in 2013 and 48% last year.
Sears inks new licensing agreements for two top brands

Sears Holdings is expanding the distribution of two of its iconic brands. Cleva North America will manufacture vacuum cleaners and floor cleaning accessories under the Kenmore and Kenmore Elite brands. The company will be able to sell the products to retailers around the world.
Macy's consolidates merchandising ops, cuts 100 jobs

Macy's is streamlining its merchandising operations, expanding its exclusive products and putting increased emphasis on customer insights and data analytics as new CEO Jeff Gennette begins to make his mark on the ailing department store giant.
Kohl’s to reduce floor space in half of its stores by end of year

There are some major changes going on at Kohl's stores. The department store retailer announced plans to make nearly half its locations "operationally smaller through balancing inventory and adjusting fixtures" by the end of 2017. To date, the new interior layouts have been rolled out in 300 Kohl's locations.
Survey: Walmart, Target and Old Navy tops in awareness — and that's not all

Back-to-school advertising appears to be losing some of its resonance with consumers. Walmart, Target and Old Navy scored the highest awareness levels among consumers (with children under the age of 18) in a survey of BTS advertising from 30 retailers by YouGov BrandIndex. But many retailers scored less than last year.
Study: Top reasons millennial parents prefer stores for BTS shopping

When it comes to sticking on budget, millennial parents prefer in-store shopping over digital commerce for back-to-school purchases. Sixty-five percent of millennial parents believe shopping in-store enables them to more effectively remain within budget goals compared to shopping online, according to a study commissioned by Citi Retail Services. These parents plan to do the majority, 72% on average, of back-to-school shopping in a store rather than online this year.
Outdoor apparel and gear brand runs first TV ad