TECHNOLOGY

Special webinar on the network connectivity during the holiday rush
Don’t miss this Chain Store Age webinar on retailers’ most important selling season: the holidays. Entitled “Holiday Uptime: Preparing your network for the holiday rush,” the presentation will offer tips for developing a network outage plan and offer advice on how to issue-proof a network. It will also reveal common network traps overlooked by retailers.
Sears reenters category it exited four years ago
Sears Holding Corp. is hoping to capitalize on the upswing in home improvement projects. The retailer announced it is bringing back paint and related accessories to its stores under three different brands: Craftsman, Weatherbeater and Easy Living. It’s the first time the Craftsman brand will be extended to the paint category. Sears will test the new offerings in 23 stores nationwide before a chainwide rollout.

David’s Bridal future-proofs in-store network

In effort to protect its organization from potential data breaches and prepare for the delivery of new omnichannel services, David’s Bridal is modernizing its failover network.
Lowe’s reboots customer engagement with in-store robots

Eager to streamline the in-store shopping experience, Lowe’s will introduce a fleet of retail service robots this fall throughout select stores in the San Francisco Bay area.
Coupon usage — print and digital — rises

Consumers aren’t ready to let go of print coupons. A majority (58%) of respondents reported using more print coupons over the past year, according to the 2016 Purse String Survey by Valassis. Thirty-eight of respondents said the same about mobile coupons and 32% are using online coupons or coupon codes more often.
Nordstrom expands deal with specialty retailer

Nordstrom shoppers will now be able to purchase J.Crew apparel, as well as its sister brand Madewell. Continuing to expand its partnerships with select brands, the department store retailer has entered into a new deal with J. Crew Group to sell an edited assortment of J.Crew apparel at select full-line Nordstrom and on its website beginning Sept. 12. The assortment, to be featured in 16 Nordstrom locations, will include women's apparel, accessories and petites (online only).
Report: Email campaign opening rates are highest on…

Staying true to the adage, “timing is everything,” retailers must be mindful that the best days for email-driven engagement don’t necessarily translate into same-day conversions, according to a new report from Yes Lifecycle Marketing.
Report: Retailers should respond to needs of ‘silver’ shoppers

Convenience stores stand to benefit the most from a greying population. That’s according to new report from Fung Global Retail & Technology which looks at the impact of the growing 65-and-over population on global economies, industries and retail.
The retailer with the best digital gift card program is…

Beauty giant Sephora scores the highest when it comes to online gifting. That’s according to RSR Research’s sixth annual digital gifting benchmarking report. Sephora came out on top, scoring 55 points out of a possible 66 points, followed by Starbucks (50.5) and The Home Depot (46.5). Rounding out the top five: Dunkin’ Donuts (44.5) and Amazon (43). (The top 25 retailers in the study are listed at the end of article.)
PetSmart in pet relief effort

PetSmart is reaching out to help pets stranded by the Louisiana floods The chain and its charitable nonprofit arm, PetSmart Charities, are coming to the aid of hundreds of animals left homeless by the Louisiana floods, which is being called the worst natural disaster to hit the United States since Hurricane Sandy.
J.C. Penney focused on omnichannel

Omnichannel initiatives are crucial to J.C. Penney’s newly-unveiled plan to drive profit and accelerate growth. In a presentation at its 2016 analyst meeting, Penney said it is seeking to boost its e-commerce and omnichannel experience, starting with a newly redesigned app that enables customers to locate items, apply coupons and access their JCPenney Rewards more easily.
First Data report: Back-to-school spending starting to heat up

Back to school sales appear to be rebounding this year after experiencing sluggish growth over the past three years (2013-2015). That’s according to First Data’s Back-to-school SpendTrend report, which is based on aggregate same store sales activity in the First Data point-of-sale network. Some of the most significant findings include: