Email subscriber list increased

Multi-sport retailer, Nytro has announced its latest sweepstakes giveaway allowing customers to register to win two-time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington’s bike. Powered by one-to-one marketing provider ExactTarget, Nytro’s Cannondale bike give-away is the second in 12 months for the California-based retailer, which has already seen its email subscriber list increase by nearly 50 percent from its first campaign. (Greg Moser, Nytro’s web director.)

Online ordering for pizza

i Brands Corporation has signed a beta test online service agreement with Zucca Bar & Pizzeria, www.ZuccaPizza.com, a casual Italian dining restaurant chain specializing in New York style pizza and family-recipe pasta/sauces. The beta test will last 90-days followed by a roll-out into Zucca’s chain. Zucca’s management intends to growth their chain, firstly on a regional then national basis.

According to pizzamarketplace.com, “Online ordering is a fast-growing part of the pizza business. For smaller, independent pizza operations, it is important to develop an online ordering system in order to stay competitive.” QSR Magazine recently reported that “of the Quick Service experts surveyed, 51% predict online ordering to be 'The Next Big Thing'.” According to i Brands, less than 5% of restaurants in the United States offer online ordering.

New look wrangler.com

wrangler.com has a new look and feel, an interactive home page and a new ecommerce store. The Zobrist team developed the WebSphere 6.0 Commerce / Content site architecture to deliver an integrated brand experience on wrangler.com. (Brendan Walsh, Wrangler.com Project Manager.) www.zobristinc.com and www.wrangler.com.

Voice and data for Bath showroom

Renaissance Tile & Bath has implemented MegaPath’s Duet service to deliver voice and data capabilities for the company’s showroom location. Renaissance Tile & Bath, a design resource providing luxury tile, stone and bath products for the home, leverages Duet to increase productivity, connect to headquarters and decrease costs. (David Amos, Systems Administrator, Renaissance Tile & Bath.)

EMS for 900 retail locations

Michaels Stores has deployed Site-Command Energy Management System (EMS) at more than 900 retail locations. To date, Michaels has seen energy usage drop by more than 25 percent at stores equipped with Site-Command. The solution helps chain retailers reduce energy and maintenance costs through equipment monitoring and control combined with web-based business intelligence. Site-Command lowers energy consumption and maintenance costs in retail and restaurant facilities through an on-site EMS unit which monitors and controls Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, interior and exterior lighting, store signage, refrigerators, trash compactors, solar panels and wind power. In addition, enterprise-wide issue reporting and asset intelligence are provided through a hosted data center. Besides lowering costs, Site-Command also improves customer comfort by ensuring corporate standards for temperature and lighting are consistently maintained across the chain.

Besides lowering energy costs, Site Controls has helped significantly reduce Michaels’ carbon emissions. By lowering electricity usage by 137 million kilowatt hours annually, Michaels has reduced CO2 emissions by approximately 192 million lbs. This is the equivalent of removing 17,400 cars from the road or powering over 12,900 households for a year. (Rob McClay, VP of Store Development and Construction for Michaels.)

Major League Soccer tackles counterfeits

Major League Soccer (MLS), the top-level professional soccer league in the United States, has extended its partnership with OpSec Security to acquire expanded services for anti-counterfeiting and brand licensing management. “All of our licensed merchandise totaling $300M in sales is protected by our product authentication program. OpSec’s advanced anti-counterfeiting holograms are a recognized symbol of authenticity for consumers to identify genuine MLS merchandise,” said Stuart Crystal, Vice President of Consumer Products, MLS. MLS’ holographic labels use overt and covert anti-counterfeiting technologies to provide a deterrent to counterfeiting. It also provides a convenient means for fans to identify genuine merchandise from fakes.

Headquartered in New York City, Major League Soccer is the top-level professional soccer league in the United States and features many stars from the United States and around the world. The League's 14th season kicked off on March 19, 2009. The 15 teams in MLS are: the Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, Chivas USA, Columbus Crew, D.C. United, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Kansas City Wizards, Los Angeles Galaxy, Red Bull New York, New England Revolution, Real Salt Lake, San Jose Earthquakes, Toronto FC, and the newest team that debuted this year, Seattle Sounders FC. MLS continues to grow as the Philadelphia Union will begin play in 2010 and teams in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and Portland, Oregon will become the 17th and 18th clubs in 2011. For more information about MLS, log on to the League's official web site at www.MLSnet.com.

Macy’s customer sales data

dunnhumbyUSA, builder of sales and brand value for consumer goods and retail companies, has an expanded contractual partnership with Macy’s. Macy’s and dunnhumby initially entered into a contractual agreement in August 2008. Under the agreement, dunnhumby will continue to analyze Macy’s customer sales data, develop customer segmentation models, and work with the Macy's organization to apply the learnings, in alignment with the company’s existing customer-centric business initiatives, to accelerate future sales growth.

Encryption and key management solutions

Follett Higher Education Group has selected Thales encryption and key management solutions. As a result Follett has eliminated time-consuming manual processes for managing encryption keys – a key requirement for compliance under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Follett Higher Education Group sells more than 23 million textbooks annually in stores and online, and operates more than 700 campus bookstores for colleges and universities across the United States. For every transaction the company protects its customers’ personal data from breaches, complying with PCI DSS. Prior to selecting the Thales solution Follett security administrators manually replaced or rotated old encryption keys by hand in order to fulfill one of the PCI DSS requirements. (Irwin Gafen, Follett’s director of wholesale and distribution systems.)

Sports memorabilia and apparel

Dreams, Inc, a leader in the licensed sports products industry, has reached an agreement with JCPenney that provides customers the ability to purchase from an array of licensed sports memorabilia and apparel directly from the retailer’s online sports fan shop at (www.jcp.com). The new site provides an expanded offering of licensed sports merchandise from professional teams, colleges and athletes – all at JCPenney’s signature affordable prices. The new and expanded online sports fan shop will launch in October. By aligning with JCPenney, a national retailer with one of the largest general merchandise websites on the Internet and more than 1,100 department stores, Dreams is able to extend our merchandise offering to the more than half of Americans that the retailer currently serves. (Ross Tannenbaum, president and CEO of Dreams Inc. Steve Lawrence, executive vice president of men’s apparel at JCPenney.)

Advanced Pricing Solution

Pamida, operators of more than 200 general merchandise stores across 17 states, has selected the Revionics Advanced Pricing Solution (RAPS), which features a fully integrated forecast, planning and optimization environment across every day, promotion and markdown pricing. Pamida is known for providing consumers value and convenience for branded products, including apparel, home electronics, domestics, seasonal items, toys, house wares, and grocery items. The Revionics solution will calibrate prices on every item, in every store, each week across all categories ensuring Pamida is achieving their desired price image and financial objectives. Additionally, Revionics Promotion and Markdown Optimization will help Pamida plan and execute more effective, localized events based on regional product demand. (Bill Young, Senior VP of Store Operations at Pamida.)

Find Starbucks

Skyhook Wireless has formed a partnership with Android LBS app Find Starbucks, a simple location search app that finds Starbucks coffee shops nearest to the user. The app was released in early June and already has over 3,000 users. Find Starbucks is an example of a simple location-based app, popular because it serves a large demand of smartphone users: fulfilling their daily coffee fix. Find Starbucks can be downloaded for free today in the Android Marketplace.

Statistics on the mobile market have been added today at US Market Statistics.

Belk merchandising

Belk has signed an agreement to use TradeStone’s Merchandise Lifecycle Management suite of software solutions. Sales of Belk’s private brand merchandise have increased to more than 25 percent of the company’s total sales. As one of the nation’s leading privately-owned department stores, Belk prides itself on meeting customers' needs for fashion, quality, value and selection. TradeStone’s software solutions will help Belk reduce the private brands design, production and delivery cycle time, thus improving its ability to deliver fashion-forward merchandise to stores and customers in a timely and efficient manner. (Diane Hartjes, Belk project manager and director of private brands operations.)

Wicked Fashions

Leading apparel company, Wicked Fashions, Inc. and Brickfish, The Social Media Solution, have announced its “Hang with Ryan” campaign. The campaign, located at http://www.brickfish.com/RSbySheckler_Overview, was developed to drive awareness around Wicked Fashions, Inc.’s first celebrity clothing line, RS By Sheckler. The line was created in partnership with professional skateboarder, philanthropist and MTV reality star, Ryan Sheckler and is available at JCPenney and other leading retailers. (David Strumeier, senior vice president of sales for RS By Sheckler.)

American Eagle Outfitters' customer care

GSI Commerce Inc has signed a multiyear agreement with American Eagle Outfitters to continue providing customer care services for the American Eagle Outfitters, aerie, MARTIN + OSA and 77kids brands. GSI will provide additional customer care services under the expanded agreement. American Eagle Outfitters ranks No. 54 in the list of Top 500 online retailers recently published by Internet Retailer.

Kay's Gold Exchange Program

Kay Jewelers has selected Refinement Services LLC to provide online support for its Kay Gold Exchange Program. Refinement Services LLC is a developer of a specialized web-based gold-buying transaction-management platform. Kay Jewelers selected Refinement Services LLC in part because their video processing method and customer notification system supports the customer needs of functionality and transparency through the entire transaction and payment process. Kay Jewelers is owned by Akron, which operates 1,401 stores in all 50 states. (Mark Light, Kay Jewelers President and CEO.)

Increased conversions and average order size

Fabric.com, the online fabric store, has increased conversions and average order size by implementing a lifecycle email marketing program through Silverpop, the provider of both email marketing and marketing automation solutions specifically tailored to the unique needs of B2C and B2B marketers. The retailer utilized the Silverpop Engage platform to initiate an email lifecycle campaign and a shopping cart abandonment program. Both strategies were designed to create a more relevant dialogue with customers. The lifecycle campaign more than doubled open and click-through rates, and conversions increased by 43 percent. Additionally, the cart abandonment emails resulted in a 20 percent increase in average order size. (Melanie Coombs, e-mail marketing manager, Fabric.com.)

Bakery’s catering program

La Boulange, a San Francisco-based rustic French-inspired bakery, has selected MonkeyCatering to help develop the bakery’s first catering program with online ordering and end-to-end production management. La Boulange will launch its new website, www.laboulangebakery.com, next month and plans to complete the implementation of MonkeyCatering in the late summer to early fall timeframe. MonkeyMedia Software specializes in web-based operations solutions for the foodservice industry.

Promoting to mobile phone’s idle screens

Ace Hardware is promoting popular home maintenance products to mobile consumers through mobile phone’s idle screens. A national campaign launched around Ace’s Memorial Day Sale invited consumers to visit their local Ace Hardware to take advantage of deals. The campaign was executed by Horizon Media and generated an average CTR of 18%. In addition, consumers that viewed the campaign were nearly 30% more likely to visit an Ace Hardware retail store. Mobile Posse’s innovative mobile idle screen advertising platform powered the campaign.

The Mobile Posse solution also allows advertisers to conduct short form surveys through the mobile idle screen. In follow-up to the Ace campaign, users were asked whether they had visited an Ace Hardware store within the past seven-to-ten days. Users that viewed the campaign were 29% more likely to have visited an Ace Hardware retail store than users that did not view the campaign. These results demonstrate that mobile idle screen ads and sponsorships can help to drive traffic to retail locations. Consumers opt-in to Mobile Posse’s free application to receive informative and fun content, along with valued offers from local and national retailers. Full-screen offers are targeted and interactive, and can feature rich graphics and customer surveys. Ace Hardware has 4,600 hardware, home center and building materials stores that generate annual retail sales of more than $12 billion. www.acehardware.com. (Andrew Vitellaro, Sr. Creative Specialist at Ace Hardware.) www.mobileposse.com

Alternative to plastic cards

CashStar, the interactive gift card and incentives company, has been selected by Dippin’ Dots, well known for its beaded ice cream. With CashStar’s technology, Dippin’ Dots will provide consumers with an alternative to plastic cards. Beginning this summer, ice cream lovers everywhere can order Dippin’ Dots gift cards online to be sent to recipients via e-mail. Virtual gift cards will be available on the company’s website (www.dippindots.com) and can be purchased the same way plastic gift cards are ordered; only the virtual gift card can be personalized with different images and text and is delivered via an e-mail with a link to activate the gift. Dippin’ Dots are tiny, cryogenically frozen beads of ice cream, yogurt, sherbet and flavored ice. Invented in 1988 by microbiologist Curt Jones., Dippin’ Dots are sold in nearly 250 franchised retail locations. (Anthony George, local area marketing manager at Dippin’ Dots.) www.cashstar.com

Value of Early Feedback in an LMS Implementation

SumTotal® Systems a provider of talent development solutions, will present a live webinar, “A Good Old-Fashioned Pilot Test: Wendy’s Demonstrates the Value of Early Feedback in an LMS Implementation,” at 1:00 pm Eastern time on Wednesday, July 15, 2009. The webinar will examine how usability and pilot testing can be used to enhance a learning management system (LMS) implementation.

The featured speaker is Coley O’Brien, National Director, Operations Training for Wendy’s Corporation – one of the country's largest quick-service restaurant companies – ensuring the success of its LMS rollout meant first getting feedback from Wendy’s crew members and managers across the country through formal usability and pilot testing. Before rolling the learning solution out to approximately 45,000 employees in 1,400 restaurants that are multi-lingual, multi-generational and with varied levels of technology experience, Wendy’s conducted a series of tests to assess usability, feasibility and impact. As a result, the company was able to streamline the implementation, increase user adoption by engaging employees in the process and reap maximum benefits.

Viewers can expect to learn Wendy’s process for conducting usability and pilot testing with a broad target audience spanning a wide geography and using multiple test leads. Specific topics to be discussed include: why Wendy’s chose to conduct formal usability and pilot tests prior to implementation; how Wendy's conducted testing with a geographically-dispersed pilot audience; how Wendy’s harnessed test feedback to enhance their LMS implementation and custom e-Learning course development.

To attend this webinar, register here.