The FTC released a detailed agenda of its Sept. 16 conference on marketing and consumer protection that will feature discussions by agency staff and representatives from a number of universities, said a Thursday news release. Topics of talks will include privacy policies and online display advertising, assessing native advertising in mobile search, algorithmic bias in serving ads in social media and value of mobile ad targeting. Ginger Jin, director of the FTC Economics Bureau, will open the conference. The 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. event will be in the FTC fifth-floor conference room at the Constitution Center, 400 7th St., SW. Preregistration is necessary, the commission said.
Headphone customers visiting New York can have a busy one-stop shopping day at Westfield World Trade Center, a 365,000-square-foot destination space that will have its grand opening Tuesday in Lower Manhattan. Apple, Bose, Sennheiser and Under Armour are among the 100 brand stores that will be part of the multilevel space featuring retail stores, cultural events, entertainment and digital signage. The focal point of the space is the soaring Oculus, designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, which will be the centerpiece of an area encompassing the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, One World Trade Center Observatory and a high-traffic transportation hub for 13 train lines and ferries serving New York and New Jersey. Mall developer Westfield calls the location “Lower Manhattan’s new meeting point” through which 300,000 commuters are expected to pass daily. Apple and Bose didn’t comment on their presence at the high-profile location, but Sennheiser said Monday it's a “technical partner” to Westfield World Trade Center and will open a flagship showroom called Soundscape in October. The company is also opening a pop-up store in the nearby SoHo neighborhood as a second location where the public can listen to its headphones. When Soundscape opens this fall, it will “take inspiration from the Oculus’ spirit of exploration and cultural celebration” by offering public access to its product line, including the reference $60,000 SE 1 headphones, it said. Sennheiser will also show its conferencing solutions for businesses. The company plans to hold events to “bring people closer to sound,” it said.
The value of contactless point-of-sale (POS) terminal transactions conducted in stores via cards, mobile devices and wearables will approach $500 billion worldwide by 2017, up from $321 billion this year, said a Juniper Research study Monday. The surge will be tied to retailer obligations to card companies in many markets to ensure all terminals will be “contactless”-ready by 2020, it said. Contactless will represent half of payment cards issued by 2020, while smartphone and tablet-based POS terminals will handle 20 percent of all retail POS transaction value by 2021, it said.
TCL is looking to boost brand recognition as a global TV supplier ahead amid the spotlight of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, it said in a news release. TCL signed a memorandum of understanding to invest $61 million in Semp TCL, a joint venture with Brazilian CE company Semp. Formal operations of Semp TCL, incorporated in Brazil, will begin Monday, it said. TCL spoke at CES of its broad strategy to become a top-tier global manufacturer and said it would expand into new categories this year (see 1601060012). TCL called Semp one of the largest appliance businesses in Brazil, with “substantial brand recognition,” which produces TVs, small home appliances and other CE products. Under the agreement, the two companies will collaborate on research, supply chain, production and sales with a focus on the core business of TCL and Semp TVs and other small electronics in the “mid to high range.” The venture is eyeing market share of 10 percent in Brazil, and a top-three industry ranking within three years, said TCL. Sales of TCL-branded products are expected to reach 800,000 sets, an 8 percent share in Brazil.
ProSource said it added 21 custom integrator members, bringing more than $43 million in revenue to the group. Sherry Dantonio, membership director, attributed the member growth to ProSource’s education, town hall dinners, networking opportunities and vendor programs. New dealerships are Avidia, Northbrook, Illinois; Beacon Audio Video Systems, Centerville, Ohio; Bob’s Smart Home, Woodinville, Washington; Cinegration, Arvada, Colorado; Command South, Boca Raton, Florida; Connected Home, Belville, North Carolina; County TV, Stamford, Connecticut; Desert Valley Audio Video, Scottsdale; Home Technology, St. Charles, Missouri; KP Audio & Video, Woodland Hills, California; Lanza AV Home Theater & Security, Phoenix; Louisa’s Electronics, Durango, Colorado; Memphis Home Theater, Memphis; Palm Beach Electronics, Wellington, Florida; Paradise Home Entertainment, Scottsdale; Switch Audio Video, Birmingham, Alabama; The Soundwave, Lubbock, Texas; Twisted Pair Media, Nashville; Unlimited Electronic Environments, Pompano Beach, Florida; Wicked Smart Homes, Sarasota, Florida; and Your Security Connection, Lake Park, Florida.
Addressing the much-discussed topic of consumer education, LG is rolling out the LG Experience, an interactive TV display designed to help TV shoppers experience the latest advances in TV picture quality -- high dynamic range and Ultra HD 4K resolution -- on LG 2016 OLED and Super UHD TVs at retail. The 16- and 24-foot LG Experience walls are going up in 400 Best Buy locations nationwide. “With so many new technologies and oftentimes confusing jargon used to describe them, it’s our job as a manufacturer to help consumers understand the benefits of today’s leading innovations,” said David VanderWaal, LG vice president-marketing, in a statement. Products included in the Best Buy displays: OLED65B6P, OLED55C6P and the curved OLED 65EG9600, along with Super UHD models 65UH8500 and 55UH7700, the first LED-lit TVs to support Dolby Vision and HDR10 high dynamic range. The Best Buy display also will feature LG's LAS950, LAS855 and SH7B streaming soundbars, said the company. Two 86-inch signage displays round out the experience, LG said. Other configurations of the LG Experience display are planned for leading regional retailers, LG said.
Walmart is taking on Amazon Prime with a two-day shipping service called ShippingPass, it said Wednesday. The retailer is offering customers a free 30-day trial of the service, which Walmart said at $49 is “about half the price of similar programs out there." Amazon Prime is $99 per year, but includes perks such as audio and video streaming, early access to new products and cloud storage. The Walmart ShippingPass has no minimum order requirements and offers free return shipping or in-store returns.
H.h. gregg announced an early renegotiation of its revolving credit facility. The amended revolving credit facility lowers the maximum credit limit from $400 million to $300 million to align with the company's expected inventory levels, it said. It also increases the borrowing base availability calculation, increasing funds available to the company by $20 million to $185 million, the company said Tuesday, with no interest rate change. The maturity date was extended to June 28, 2021. The retailer is on track to reset more than 100 stores and add seven Fine Lines departments by the holiday season, said Chief Financial Officer Robert Riesbeck, who's interim president-CEO.
Technology will again play a major role in the upcoming holiday season, but it won’t be just products that consumers buy driving end-of-year sales, said a National Retail Federation report. While the expected TVs, PCs and Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets are primed to be top sellers come November, wearables and video streaming also will be factors on the gift side, and buy buttons and mobile payments will influence the way consumers make purchases, NRF said. It cited a Synchrony Financial report from early this year saying eight of the top 10 retail trends for 2016 involve technology. Topics to keep an eye on, said NRF: (1) how social media and in-store shopping experiences blend, (2) how retail takes advantage of location-based strategies, (3) whether augmented reality and VR play a role, (4) if messaging services and bots “become the new apps,” (5) how online marketplaces will change the landscape, (6) the impact of payment options on the bottom line, (7) whether Singles Day (Nov. 11) gains traction with early-bird shoppers in the U.S. and (8) how two additional shopping days will affect holiday season sales compared with 2015.
May CE same-store sales at Conn’s fell 13.3 percent because of “softer” TV vendor promotions compared with a year earlier, the retailer said in a Tuesday announcement. TV sales recovered “some” late in the month “on aggressive Memorial Day promotions by the manufacturers,” it said. Overall same-store sales in the month fell 6.7 percent, partly because Memorial Day fell five days later this year than in 2015, it said. “As a result, more of the sales written over the holiday weekend will not be delivered and booked until June,” it said.