Merchandising

In December, EcommerceBytes took a look at Amazon.com's activities in the 3-D printing space and how 3-D printers could impact retail and e-commerce. Now comes news that Amazon has set up a new division selling 3-D printed products in partnership with five companies. The Cincinnati Business Courier broke the news yesterday about what it calls a new pilot program to sell 3-D printed products in four categories: toys, home accessories and decor items, jewelry, and fashion/tech accessories. Amazon has sold 3-D printers and supplies for some time, and third-party merchants are already listing 3-D printed objects on Amazon independently.

"There's more to life than furniture" declares a bold headline in a recent Ikea catalog. Perhaps a somewhat surprising statement from the world's leading home furnishings company. But if you know Ikea, then you know that it positions itself as "life improvers."

The long-awaited earnings release and conference call of J.C. Penney's annual sales and earnings result yesterday gave an outline of the strategies the company will follow in order to be a winner. The 2013 results were impacted by the folly of the Ron Johnson era. There was merchandise that consumers didn't want that had to be marked down in order to make room for iconic brands that had been discontinued. The company's performance was also affected, as were all retailers, by the brutal weather that forced the closing of dozens of stores throughout the Central and Northern states. 

When Macy's reports fourth-quarter results tomorrow, there may be some commentary about weak sales of Martha Stewart merchandise in its home department. At least that's what Macy's said last month in a court filing seeking damages from J.C. Penney in a two-year-old lawsuit. "Post-trial sales have now taken place, and the sales figures show that the effect of J.C. Penney's conduct on Macy's sale of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia goods was substantial," Macy's lawyers said. 

The much-maligned suit worn by the U.S. speedskating team should never have been victimized, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank says in an exclusive interview. "It was a bit of a witch hunt that began to build," he says, in his first extensive interview since the Under Armour suit became a scapegoat for the failure of U.S. speedskaters to win Olympic medals. "The suit became the witch." Plank is so certain that the "Mach 39" suit is a winner that Under Armour will continue to invest in it and tweak it until the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea. 

Ikea thought it could discontinue a shelf popular with record collectors without causing much commotion. Now it has to face the music. Ikea plans to stop selling its iconic "EXPEDIT" shelf and replace it with a different wall unit, company Spokesperson Janice Simonsen told the Huffington Post. That news, first mentioned on Ikea Germany's Facebook page, has set off an internet cacophony, fueled mostly by vinyl record collectors, who say that the EXPEDIT has been the perfect shelf for storing records (among other things) for over a generation.

Home Depot and Lowe's are under fire for selling pesticides that some believe are partly to blame for killing billions of the nation's honeybees. Petitions with thousands of signatures are being delivered to the home-improvement retailers demanding they stop selling the pesticides along with any plants that have been treated with them. "There's a growing body of science indicating that the pesticides are a key factor in recent global bee deaths," said Lisa Archer, director of the food and technology program at the environmental group Friends of the Earth.

CVS Caremark announced Wednesday that it will stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products at its CVS/pharmacy stores by Oct. 1 of this year. The retailer said the move makes CVS/pharmacy the first chain of national pharmacies to take tobacco products off the shelves. "Ending the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products at CVS/pharmacy is the right thing for us to do for our customers and our company to help people on their path to better health," Larry J. Merlo, president and CEO of CVS Caremark, said in a statement. 

With the beginning of a new year comes all sorts of prompts from brands, infomercials and various social media toward new behaviors — e.g., weight loss, exercise, decluttering, eating healthy, simplifying your financial record keeping, etc. It's also a good time to ask yourself just how exactly your company helps its customers achieve their goals. Is your brand inspirational and motivational enough to turn your customers into doers? Let's look how one brand masters the art of motivation:

As the year comes to a close, take a moment and take stock of how often your products or services delighted your customers these past 12 months. Delight is a verb worth striving for. Here's how one brand lives it out year-round: