Target has announced that it will roll out its new loyalty program, Target Circle, nationwide on Oct. 6. The expansion of the loyalty program complements Target’s branded credit card, Redcard, which only a quarter of its customers use. It also replaces Cartwheel, a separate discount program, in an attempt to offer a “more seamless, intuitive shopping experience.” The…
Melissa Campanelli
Retailers are learning about all of the new technologies in the marketplace primarily through self-research. This was a key finding from Total Retail's recently released 2019 Retail Technology Report, which surveyed retail executives on a variety of technology-related topics, including how retailers keep abreast of the new technology solutions and innovations in the market, as well…
Target Corp. introduced today Good & Gather, a private-label brand that features food and beverage products. Good & Gather, Target's largest owned brand launch, will be available in stores and online beginning Sept. 15. By the end of 2020, Target said the brand will include more than 2,000 products such as dairy, produce, ready-made pastas,…
The National Retail Federation (NRF) today announced that retail sales — excluding automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants — were up 0.9 percent in July, up 5.6 percent year-over-year, and the industry trade association remains cautiously optimistic about consumer spending as a whole for the rest of the year. The NRF said its numbers are based on data…
In a post to its company blog last week, popular fashion resale platform Poshmark announced that its servers had been accessed by an "unauthorized third party." The hackers stole private data from users in the U.S. that included personal email addresses, Poshmark account usernames, clothing size preferences, and social media account information. Poshmark, which is…
Due to the cross-channel behavior of today’s consumers, shifting from channel to channel and device to device in the same purchase journey, retailers and brands are spending more of their technology budgets on systems and solutions that enable omnichannel operations — e.g., order and inventory management systems. At the same time, they've yet to fully…
Walmart, in conjunction with autonomous vehicle company Gatik, is launching a driverless delivery pilot to deliver orders between two of its stores on a two-mile route in Bentonville, Arkansas, according to a company blog post. In March, Arkansas passed legislation allowing for autonomous vehicles to operate in the state. The Gatik vehicles, which will be staffed during the…
Walmart is making further organizational changes as it continues to integrate its store and digital operations and leadership, according to a July 19 memo obtained by CNBC that was sent by CEO Doug McMillon to the retailer’s employees. The biggest change announced is Walmart's move to bring the U.S. supply chain teams together, which will be led…
In just five years, Amazon.com’s annual Prime Day sales event has gone from a way for the online retail giant to promote its Prime membership program to a nationwide shopping holiday. Amazon began this year's 48-hour sale (up from lat year's 36 hours) at 12:00 a.m. PST this morning, and it will run until tomorrow…
Fashion accessory retailer Charming Charlie will close all of its stores after going bankrupt for the second time in less than two years. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware with plans to close all of its 261 stores in 38 states, according to court documents via Bloomberg News. The chain expects the liquidation to take about…
Tamara Pattison, chief marketing and information officer at BevMo!, a leading alcoholic specialty beverage retailer, recently spoke with Total Retail regarding the company's mobile app strategy as well as its focus on omnichannel. Here's the exclusive interview: Total Retail: Tell us about BevMo!…
Amazon.com is charging “additional funding” to certain grocery brands during this year’s Prime Day if sales of their products result in a loss for Amazon, according to an email seen by CNBC, and reported on its website. Amazon said the change is intended to “fund the profitability gap” of such products, which Amazon purchases wholesale…
Clothing subscription company Rent the Runway has added drop boxes to four Nordstrom locations in Los Angeles. The deal, which CNBC announced on Thursday, is Rent the Runway’s second plan to expand its reach after agreeing last fall to put drop boxes in certain WeWork locations. The drop boxes will be at three of Nordstrom’s…
Amazon.com launched a new pickup option, Counter, in the U.S. today. Counter is a network of staffed package pickup points that enables customers to collect their Amazon packages from Counter locations at third-party retail outlets, department stores, and local neighborhood stores. Counter went live today in more than a hundred Rite Aid stores across the U.S. By…
Defunct children’s retail chain Toys"R"Us will open about a half dozen U.S. stores and an e-commerce site this holiday season, roughly a year after shuttering U.S. operations, according to a report in Bloomberg. Richard Barry, a former Toys"R"Us executive who is now CEO of new entity Tru Kids Inc., has been pitching his vision to reincarnate…
