news
Banned By Amazon: Tech Products It Won’t Touch
There are guidelines to what third-party sellers can and can’t sell on Amazon, but when it comes to tech products, the No. 1 e-tailer...
Retail
news
Is This What An Amazon Electronics Store Will Look Like?
Amazon used to declare brick-and-mortar dead. But in the wake of e-commerce tax initiatives and I-want-it-now fulfillment, the e-tail leviathan has done an about...
news
Target Tapping Retail Innovators
Target has received more than 500 applications from retail innovation start-ups looking to join its new in-house accelerator program. The joint initiative, formed with...
news
Amazon Still Kicking It In Customer Satisfaction
Many moons ago Simon & Garfunkel (I’ll explain later kids) released a ditty called “Keep the Customer Satisfied.” It would make for an appropriate...
news
Wireless Zone Changing With The Times
Wireless Zone, the franchise chain specializing in Verizon phones and service, is rolling out a gross-profit royalty model to replace a gross-revenue model that...
news
Lowe’s Tests Microsoft HoloLens VR Headset For Kitchen Remodeling
Home-improvement chain Lowe’s launched a pilot program to test the use of Microsoft’s HoloLens holographic VR headset to help shoppers remodel their kitchens. Lowe’s...
news
Amazon Fulfillment Takes Flight
Rumors of Amazon taking to the air have been confirmed, and we’re not talking drones. The e-tailer’s fulfillment arm, Amazon Fulfillment Services, has leased...
news
CE Weighs On Conn’s Feb. Comps
The CE and IT categories continue to be a drag on comp sales at Conn’s, the multiregional furniture, majap and electronics chain. The Texas-based...
news
HSN Customers Can Now Shop Via Amazon Fire TV
Amazon has added HSN’s Shop By Remote shopping app to its Fire TV and Fire TV Stick functionality. The move, first reported in October,...
news
Store Closings Continue At Staples
Staples closed 73 North American stores in 2015 and plans to shutter another 50 this year, the No. 1 office-supply chain reported. The closings,...
news
Target: O Say Can’t You CE
Updated! Apparently tech remains a step-child at Target. In an analyst presentation in New York last week, senior management’s strategic focus was clearly on supply chain improvements, m-commerce, new store concepts, and its...
news
Costco CE Sales, And Minimum Wage, A-Rising
Holiday and Super Bowl sales of big-screen TVs helped drive up Costco’s CE comps by the low to mid-teens during its second fiscal quarter....
news
Despite What You’ve Heard, Appliance Makers Are Standing By Sears: Lampert
Sears’ major appliance suppliers are standing fast with the ailing chain, chairman/CEO Eddie Lampert said, even as its losses continue to mount. In a...
news
4K UHD Blu-ray Driving TV Sales At VAC
Video & Audio Center (VAC), which was first to launch 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players at retail earlier this month, is already seeing a...
news
Dixons Carphone, Sprint Ink Deal To Open Up To 500 Sprint Stores
Sprint and Dixons Carphone, the European cellphone and consumer electronics retailer, agreed to form a joint venture to open as many as 500 new...
news
Best Buy CFO Cites Historic Change At The Company
A recent supply-chain initiative at Best Buy will be one for the company’s history books, according to chief financial officer Sharon McCollam, and is...
news
Wal-Mart HQ Cuts Continue
Wal-Mart Stores has laid off between 1 and 3 percent of its information services staff following a tech division reorganization. The information services unit,...
news
Best Buy Pulls Plug On Third-Party Marketplace
Best Buy has discontinued its online Marketplace after five years of operation, citing product overlap, customer confusion, and minimal revenue contribution. In an email...
news
RadioShack, Nick Cannon Launch Ncredible Audio Line
The first fruits of RadioShack’s collaboration with pop personality Nick Cannon took shape in Harlem on Tuesday, where the partners showed off Cannon’s Ncredible...
news
Best Buy Tweaking HQ Ranks: Report
Best Buy has shed several dozen corporate posts but is looking to add about 90 new headquarters staffers, the hometown Star Tribune reported. The...
news
Amazon Ups Free-Shipping Minimum For Non-Prime Customers
The days of free shipping on orders of $35 or more have quietly ended at Amazon. Now, non-Prime members will have to purchase a...
news
Pirch To Alight In New York With Smart Kitchen In Tow
Luxury kitchen, bath and appliance chain Pirch will have some new interactive angles up its sleeve when it lands in the Big Apple this...
news
NBC Keeps It Real On The Set Of ‘Superstore’
Attention shoppers: If the backdrop to NBC’s new retail sitcom “Superstore” looks familiar, it should — the pilot was filmed in a Burbank, Calif.,...
news
hhgregg Spoofs Late-Night CD Compilations In Punny Ode To Appliances
Amid cutbacks to its media spend, hhgregg has taken to cyberspace to promote appliances in a witty parody of late-night song compilations. Just in...
news
Amazon Deploying ‘Dragon Boat’ To Corner Global e-Commerce
An internal report from Amazon obtained by Bloomberg News outlines a plan to build a global e-commerce and supply-chain network that would blunt Alibaba,...
Financial
Conn’s Comps Slip In January
A late Super Bowl and last year’s exit from gaming, imaging and select tablets led to a 2.3 percent decline in January comp sales at...
news
Sears Accelerates Belt-Tightening Amid Brutal Q4
Sears said it is considering additional store closures, layoffs, loans and asset sales to help stem mounting losses. This morning the company pre-announced an...
news
Retailers To Circuit City: Good Luck
News of a possible third-coming of Circuit City this summer has received mixed reactions from some veteran tech dealers. Speaking from hard-earned experience, a...
news
Video & Audio Center To Sell LG Signature OLED At Exclusive Super Bowl Event
SoCal tech chain Video & Audio Center (VAC) and LG Electronics are teaming up again on Super Sunday to kick off a state-of-the-art TV....
news
JCPenney Airs First New Appliance Spot
JCPenney is airing its first TV commercial heralding its return to white-goods. The humorous spot depicts a washer on the fritz and a woman...
news
Amazon Echo Gets New Skill For Super Bowl
Super Bowl fans and couch potatoes rejoice — you can now order a Domino’s pizza without lifting a finger. In time for Sunday’s Big...
news
Amazon May Open 400 New Bookstores: Reports
Talk about rubbing salt in the wound. After helping to devastate chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble with rock-bottom book prices, Amazon has...
news
TV Promos Heat Up As Super Bowl Sunday Approaches
It’s do-or-die time for dealers and vendors looking to make up lost momentum after an epic East Coast blizzard blitzed Super Bowl TV sales...
news
The New Circuit City: We Ain’t No RadioShack
Word here last week of a Circuit City comeback unleashed an unprecedented avalanche of social, digital and traditional media reaction. While many welcomed a...
news
Circuit City’s Imminent Return Begs The Question: What Do You Miss?
The news that Ronny Shmoel and Albert Liniado plan to bring back Circuit City has sparked a wave of nostalgia across TWICE.com and our...
news
Walmart Store Closings Causing Customers Pain: NBC News
Walmart’s planned closure of nearly 154 stores this week is leaving many customers high and dry. According to an NBC News report, the discount...
news
Amazon Taps Alec Baldwin, Dan Marino For Its First-Ever Super Bowl Spot
Amazon has thrown its hat into the Super Bowl TV commercial competition with it’s first-ever ad for the Big Game. The No. 1 e-tailer...
news
Big Shakeup At Staples
In what chairman/CEO Ron Sargent described as a “streamlining” of the organization, Staples is dismissing its North American retail chief Demos Parneros and combining...
news
Circuit City Set To Return This Spring
New York area retail vets Ronny Shmoel and Albert Liniado are betting that the third time will be a charm for Circuit City. Shmoel,...
news
JCPenney To Test Appliances In 22 Stores
More than 30 years after exiting the major appliance business, JCPenney is looking to get back in. The Texas-based department store chain said it...
news
Staples, Office Depot Delay Merger
The nation’s two largest office-supply chains have put off their planned merger until May while they fight a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit seeking to...
news
Wal-Mart Closing 154 U.S. Stores
Wal-Mart is closing 269 of its least productive stores worldwide, including 154 locations in the U.S. The U.S. contingent include the discounter’s entire 102-store...