Wal-Mart to pay referral eVouchers for its grocery pickup test by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “The world’s large retailer is now offering users up to $100 in referral e-Vouchers for sharing their referral across their social media feeds on Facebook and Twitter…The retailer states on its website that the eVoucher payments are limited to $10 per qualified referral on a minimum $50 order. Other limits include no more than 10 qualified referral payments per calendar year or 100 per lifetime.” Read more

 

Bloomberg: The Cheap Toys You Buy Your Kid Are Rarely Inspected by Renee Dudley. “It is a very comfortable lie that Americans are living that Uncle Sam is looking out for them to make sure products are safe,” said David Kwass, an attorney who represented the Tamayo family in a lawsuit against Dollar Tree, Walt Disney Co. and others that was later settled. “He’s not.” Retailers ranked by violation

 

Walmart And Target Being Crowded Out Online By Amazon Prime by Clare O’Connor at Forbes. “Market research consultancy Millward Brown Digital analyzed the buying patterns of more than 2 million online consumers…The company’s analysis of Prime versus non-Prime members’ cross-shopping behaviors found that less than 1% of Prime members are likely to consider other mass-market retail sites — Walmart.com and Target.com, for example — during the same online session.” Read more

 

…63% of Amazon Prime members carry out a transaction when visiting the site, just 2% of Target.com shoppers purchase during their visit, 5% of Walmart.com shoppers purchase online by Ashlee Kieler at The Consumerist. Read more

 

Home Depot Chairman and CEO Menear’s total compensation grew to $10.1 million at Atlanta Business Chronicle. Read more

 

***A Message from CLUG: The World’s Smallest Bike Rack is Now Available. The CLUG Bike Clip is targeted at the urban cyclist and the casual enthusiast who are short on storage space for their bikes.  CLUG is a patent pending, high quality product that made the list of 2014 Best Stuff by GQ Magazine in their December 2014 issue.  CLUG is now ready for retail with its 100% recyclable, high volume packaging.  See the video.  See the sell sheet. Contact info@shiftmarketinggroup.net to request a product sample.

 

Wayfair co-founders sell nearly $4M in company stock by David Harris at Boston Business Journal. “(Steve) Conine and (Niraj) Shah each have a 28.9 percent stake in the company valued at about $636 million apiece.” Read more

 

Dick’s to Open #611 “Dick’s will be opening its 6^th store in Iowa and 611^th store nationwide on Friday, April 17^th at Burlington Commons inBurlington, IA” Read the release

 

Bob Witeck, Walmart’s LGBT consultant, gets corporations on the workers’ side by Steven Thrasher at The Guardian. Read more

 

The 2 best-selling books on Amazon right now are ‘adult coloring books’ by Melia Robinson at Business Insider. “So many people have said to me that they used to do secret coloring-in when their kids were in bed. Now it is socially acceptable, it’s a category of its own.” Read more

 

Scotts Miracle-Gro jumps in marijuana business with deal for Calif. hydroponics company by Tom Knox at Columbus Business First. “High Times magazine said in a story analyzing the history of hydroponics that General Hydroponics’ plant food “ quickly became the standard for hydroponic growers and their meteoric success spawned many imitators.” Read more

 

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Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet is created early every weekday morning and read by retail merchants and executives worldwide. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.