It’s not often that Presidential candidates make the pages of Multichannel Merchant. It’s also not often that Donald Trump follows through with his promise to run for President.
And what a start The Donald’s campaign is off to: Less than a week after kickoff, Macy’s announced it would pull the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection from its shelves after he made inflammatory and racially charged statements directed towards immigrants from Mexico. Which is interesting, since, as BuzzFeed noted, that merchandise is made in Mexico.
There’s two sides to every story, and as The Donald noted on Instagram, he actually ended the relationship with Macy’s because he’s not happy that the merchandise is NOT made in the USA… oh, and that “Clearly, NBC (which also dumped Trump like a cheap suit last week) supports illegal immigration” and “totally caved at the first sight of potential difficulty with special interest groups…”
Macy’s severed ties with Trump on Wednesday. The collection was nowhere to be found on Macys.com on Thursday.
Here’s a look at the news, announcements and findings that shaped the week ending July 4. And have a Happy Independence Day!
Marketing
LIDS Sports Group has renewed its rights to offer customers embroidered names and numbers on select Major League Baseball jerseys and hats… AdMobilize today announced the release of AdBeacon 2.0, analytics solution which helps businesses measure their offline ad performance in the physical world… Online-only retailers are going omnichannel. Home decor fabrics seller Guildrely recently opened two locations in the San Francisco Bay area. ePuppets opens its first brick-and-mortar store on July 4 in Mt. Shasta, CA… More than one-fourth of millennials have faked their birthday when signing up for newsletters in hopes of getting a discount on their purchase, according to this Mindshare North America survey…
Ecommerce
Gelb Music has found a way to not only survive a big box incursion but thrive by putting a greater focus on its ecommerce business… Bite-Lite Nature Inspired Insect Control Products announced Monday that it had launched its new and improved website… Do you really need a Slurpee? Do you live in San Francisco? Now you can get one delivered on demand with the Postmates app… Ellen DeGeneres debuted her new lifestyle collection, ED, on EDbyEllen.com… Tealium’s customer data solutions are now empowered with a fully integrated AddShoppers onsite commerce marketing platform…A former Amazon.com team has launched Mona, an app that puts a personal shopper in your pocket… Veronafiere and Vinitaly have launched VINO, the first app entirely dedicated to the online sale of Italy’s finest wines… Junkyards in Cartersville, GA and Urbana, IL are now selling stock components online through the Locate Car Parts website… Musical instrument retailer Cascio Interstate now offers its musician customers a wide selection of vinyl records, DVDs, Blu-rays and CDs at their new website.
Shipping and delivery
Packing material maker Sealed Air is rolling out a new flat version of its bubble wrap to cut down on the high costs of shipping air. That’s good news if you’re looking to deal with various shippers’ DIM weight pricing, but bad news if you are a bubble-wrap popper… Omnichannel retailer Peltz Shoes said it has dropped RFID tags for inventory management due to high costs. RFID labels were a learning tool for the independent shoe retailer, who has since moved back solely to barcode scanning control… FedEx has asked the European Union’s competition regulator to approve its $4.9 billion bid for TNT Express; the EU has 25 days to act… Amazon has introduced one-hour delivery for Prime members in select postal codes in London, with plans to expand citywide and to other metro areas by the end of the year… What are you doing to ensure your distribution center is safe? Here are some great tips… How safe is your distribution center? Here’s 7 tips to make it safer…
Cross-border
Aeropostale announced expansion plans throughout Asia with new licensing agreements in India and Indonesia… Amazon has launched Amazon.com.mx, a Spanish language marketplace for customers in Mexico. Orders above 599 pesos or $38 get free shipping via Fulfillment By Amazon. And ChannelAdvisor has already integrated with it… Alex Alexander, former technical director of Walmart Labs in Silicon Valley, has been named CIO of Yoox, the Italian online fashion and accessories seller which is acquiring Net-A-Porter… Netherlands-based packpin.com announced the launch of a plug-and-play shipment tracking solution that it says helps increase upsell revenue by up to 10%… India will soon overtake the United States to become the world’s second largest smartphone market by 2017, selling an impressive 174 million units…
Mergers and Acquisitions
Crowdsourced delivery provider Deliv has acquired WeDeliver, a company providing same-day delivery to local merchants in Chicago… CleanItSupply.com, the nation’s largest e-commerce janitorial supply company, announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire eRubbermaid.com, an online retailer of Rubbermaid Commercial Products…
… And more
Ronald D. Boire has been named CEO of Barnes & Noble’s Retail business, effective September 8. Boire is currently acting President and CEO of Sears Canada, which is in the midst of a turnaround… Women’s lifestyle apparel brand Sole Society announced $8 million in Series B funding from Nordstrom and Insight Venture Partners and a newly appointed executive team to support operations and expand distribution……