“Amazon feels the pricing heat from Walmart.com and Target.com” by Thad Reuter at Internet Retailer. “The report focuses on four main product categories: clothing and shoes; electronics; housewares; and health and cosmetics. The report finds that Amazon “largely remains the retail price leader for like-to-like items, but Wal-Mart and Target have lower online prices than Amazon” in those four categories…the report notes that Wal-Mart, described as the “standout surprise,” has online prices approximately 10% lower than does Amazon as of August 2014.” Read more

 

“Walmart stops matching Florida competitors’ buy-one-get-one offers” by Susan Thurston at Tampa Bay Times. “Instead, Walmart wants shoppers to use its price matching program called Savings Catcher, which rolled out nationwide in August. “Matching BOGO offers at Walmart’s everyday low price has been a test that has only been executed in Florida stores,” said Walmart spokeswoman Molly Blakeman. “With the introduction of Savings Catcher we have decided to end this test and align the policy in Florida with Walmart’s company policy.” Read more

 

“Nearly Half of Wayfair’s Target Customers Don’t Know it Exists” by Taryn Luna at Boston Globe. “A survey in August found that only 52 percent of middle-class women between the ages of 35 and 65, Wayfair’s best shopper, were familiar with the company.” Read more

 

“Brad Stone Tells Retailers That Amazon Can Kill Them or Teach Them” by Mike Cassidy at HuffPo. “And in a memo leaked to Stone, Bezos laid out the attributes that could inoculate Amazon from creating that sort of reaction. “One of the ones that he settles on, as maybe being able to influence a good reputation, is being seen as an innovator, being seen as pioneers,” Stone says. “So as long as you’re not completely viewed as just extracting value, but you’re inventing new things and adding value, then perhaps this is a way that Amazon can continue to be loved.” Read more

 

“Wal-Mart plans 1-stop health coverage shopping” by Anne D’Innocenzio at AP. “(Walmart) plans to work with DirectHealth.com, an online health insurance comparison site and agency, to allow shoppers to compare coverage options and enroll in Medicare plans or the public exchange plans created under the Affordable Care Act…Customers can enroll online, by phone or at 2,700 of Wal-Mart’s more than 4,000 stores, starting Oct. 10. The stores will be staffed with independent insurance agents from DirectHealth.com.” Read more

 

“FreshDirect Not Worried About Getting Crushed by Amazon, Says FreshDirect” by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “Sources have also told Re/code that FreshDirect has considered opening physical stores that would potentially serve as pick-up locations or places where customers could purchase prepared meals or both. The company said it has nothing to announce “yet.” Read more

 

“Hate checkout lines? Macy’s can help” by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati.com. “The touchscreen point of purchase or “POP” machines confirm if an item is in the store – or at any store nearby or across the country. Also being expanded are local “look book” terminals – touchscreen catalogs that replace some mannequins and show the shopper how some clothes look paired with other garments or accessories.” Read more / See the pics

 

“Happening Tomorrow: Target Exec Bill Ramsey to Speak at Mobile Payments Conference in Chicago” at Chicago Tribune. “Bill Ramsey, director of financial and retail services product design at Target Corp., will deliver a keynote presentation Tuesday at the Mobile Payments Conference in Skokie, joining executives from Best Buy, Crate & Barrel, Pandora, Sears and others to discuss retail’s move to mobile payments.” Read more

 

“Sears: Why the troubled chain’s vendors are worried” at CNBC. “Large underwriters of credit insurance—vendors’ conventional first line of defense against nonpayment—essentially have stopped offering coverage on Sears for new clients, insurance brokers said. Euler Hermes Group, one of the top underwriters, told clients this week that it was canceling coverage for new shipments, said a person informed of the new policy.” Read more

 

“Tesco Strengthens Board in Wake of Accounting Error” by Peter Evans at WSJ. “The grocer said it has appointed Richard Cousins, chief executive of catering giant Compass Group and former IKEA Group CEO Mikael Ohlsson as nonexecutive directors. Both will start Nov. 1.” Read more (Subscription required)

 

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