Creative

Sally Jewell, a retail executive and outdoor enthusiast, is President Barack Obama's pick to oversee the national parks and vast energy reserves on public lands as U.S. interior secretary. Obama nominated Jewell, chief executive of outdoor retailer REI, on Wednesday, calling her an "expert on the energy and climate issues that are going to shape our future" as well as a savvy executive who understands the link between conservation and economic progress.

Forget email. This group of 40-something men has a much better way to keep in touch. For the past 23 years, Brian Dennehy, CMO of Nordstrom, has been playing anelaborate game of tag with nine of his former classmates. According to the Wall Street Journal, the group met at Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, Wash., where they spent morning breaks darting around campus.

A breast cancer survivor and her daughter have used the internet to draw attention to an important issue and potentially create a new category of lingerie. Debbie Barrett and Allana Maiden hand-delivered more than 118,000 Change.org petition signatures to Victoria's Secret's New York office on Thursday, asking the lingerie giant to make a line of "survivor" mastectomy bras to help breast cancer survivors feel beautiful again. After delivering the signatures, Maiden and her mother Debbie Barrett met with Tammy Roberts Myers, vice president of external communications for Limited Brands, Victoria's Secret's parent company, to share their ideas for a "survivor bra." 

OK, suspend your disbelief just for a moment and hear me out. In 1999, Joe Pine and James Gilmore, authors of "The Experience Economy" predicted that we were entering an era where intense commoditization of goods left retailers with only one alternative - the need to design and stage unique and memorable experiences that are so good they justify charging an admission. So far, this hasn't really materialized beyond the gates of Disney World, but the question is, has the time finally arrived?

Home goods online retailer Wayfair said it's raised $36.3 million in new equity funding to speed growth of its private sale site for the home, Joss & Main. Investors included Battery Ventures, Great Hill Partners, HarbourVest Partners and Spark Capital. A division of Boston-based Wayfair.com, Joss & Main is a membership-based website that offers inspirational decor at attainable prices via daily events, spotlight collections highlighting design trends and styles, and curated collections in collaboration with celebrities and notable influencers within the design community, the company said.

Whether consumers shop via websites, social media pages, mobile apps, brick-and-mortar stores, etc., it's important for retailers to understand their purchasing behavior. Adding to cart as opposed to abandoning the shopping cart is, of course, the ultimate goal. Here are three ways retailers can capture consumers' holiday purchases:

Walgreens announced the launch of Happy And Healthy, Your Guide To Living Well With Walgreens, a biannual magazine focusing on healthy living tips, relevant offers and Balance Rewards loyalty program promotions. The magazine will also showcase Walgreens’ private brands.  

PATIENT: "Doc, I'm discouraged. All I hear is that online is where the sales are and I gotta pour more money into my web channels. That means I need to cut back on my catalog program, probably big time. What should I do?"

Crafting queen Jo Pearson, creative expert for Michaels Stores, will hold court as one of three judges on TLC's new competition series, "Craft Wars." The show, hosted and executive produced by celebrity crafter Tori Spelling, premieres June 26. Pearson's 25-plus years of experience creating thousands of projects for North America's largest arts and crafts specialty retailer landed her the ultimate crafting gig. 

Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Wal-Mart have launched a new shopping experience that uses big trucks, free samples and QR codes to generate online sales of P&G products.