Tipsheet: Fake Retail Apps Surge | McMillon’s Green Speech | Hanjin Sort Out | Ebay Returns to TV
As holidays approach, stores struggle to sort out Hanjin shipping mess by Natalie Kitroeff at LA Times. “Idle chassis are “the top issue” that retailers are worried about, said Jonathan Gold, the vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation. “They need those chassis back on the ports to get the full load of containers back out” of the ports, Gold said. “The longer this goes on, it continues to be a concern.” Read more
EBay Returns to TV for the Holidays by Adrianne Pasquarelli at Ad Age. “Ms. Deering declined to say how much eBay is spending this year, but noted that the budget exceeds that of 2015. Last year, the company spent roughly $2.5 million on measured media in the U.S. during November and December.” See ads / Read more
Target and Best Buy can’t wait for shoppers to shift from election mode to the holiday spirit by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “This is the end of the honeymoon season for Brian,” said Burt Flickinger of Strategic Resource Group, adding that this will be Cornell’s third holiday season at the helm.” Read more
Here Are the Most Indispensable Executives in Marketing, Media and Tech (CMO Under Armour #20, CMO Nike #27) at Adweek. Top 50 list
Beware, iPhone users: Fake retail apps are surging before holidays by Vindu Goel at NY Times via CNBC. “The counterfeiters have masqueraded as retail chains like Dollar Tree and Foot Locker, big department stores like Dillard’s and Nordstrom, online product bazaars like Zappos.com and Polyvore, and luxury-goods makers like Jimmy Choo, Christian Dior and Salvatore Ferragamo.” Read more
Suit Startup Combatant Gentlemen Brings Its Machine-Learning Smarts to Bloomingdale’s by Sara Castellanos at Wall Street Journal. “Combat Gent won’t be using heat-map cameras at its Bloomingdale’s outpost in SoHo, which debuted Friday, but it is using data gleaned from its stores in Santa Monica and Irvine to inform the layout and merchandise needed to stock the racks there.” Read more (subscription)
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Whole Foods Shareholder Said Planning Push for Changes, Sale at Bloomberg. “The investor cited Whole Foods’ poor inventory and vendor management, high costs and failure to make the most of its unique appeal to millennial shoppers among the key issues.” Read more
Toys R Us plans Thanksgiving Day opening by Sarah Whitten at CNBC. “…its stores will open at 5 p.m. local time Nov. 24 for 30 hours of continuous shopping. This is the fourth year in a row the retailer has opened at this time.” Read more
Walmart Aims to Generate Half Its Energy From Renewable Sources by 2025 by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “The goals were laid out by Wal-Mart Stores CEO Doug McMillon at the Net Impact Conference in Philadelphia and are part of the retailer’s efforts to respond to criticism of its practices.” Read more | Press release | Video
Etsy paid $32.5 Million for AI startup Blackbird Technologies by Teresa Novellino at New York Business Journal. Read more
Shopping app Wish is raising around $500 million in a new investment by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “The Wish app is generally ranked only behind Amazon in the shopping category of app stores. The startup has been a heavy spender on online ads, and was at one time Facebook’s No. 1 advertiser.” Read more
Chicago Cubs sold more than 8x the amount of merchandise online than the average for a MLB team at Internet Retailer. Read more
Australia: Woolworths, Coles, Aldi: which is cheapest for branded products? at Sydney Morning Herald. “If they bought all 36 items from Woolworths, they would pay $126.67 – a hike of $13.24, or 11.85 per cent more than Aldi. If they bought all 36 items from Coles, they would pay $129.50 – another hike of $16.25, or 14.3 per cent more than Aldi.” Read more
Tipsheet Extra Stories
P&G commercial focuses on transgender restroom use
Woman, dog attacked by two pit bulls at Costco store
This Guy Made Amazon’s Alexa Speak Through Big Mouth Billy Bass
iRobot says 20 percent of the world’s vacuums are now robots
Lidl and Aldi launch discount turntables for vinyl lovers
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