Target

Last week, Target came under fire for describing the color of one maxi dress as "dark heather gray" while calling the plus-size version "manatee gray." Now it's caught with another product-naming problem: its Mossimo brand "Orina" sandals. While the retailer initially believed the word "Orina" to mean "peace" or "peaceful" in Russian, about a week ago it found out that it actually means "urine" in Spanish.

As more technologies are being developed to supplement and enhance existing POS systems, it's becoming more important than ever for retailers to determine which types of software and applications are integral to reaching their end goals. While Google's recent emphasis on ecommerce

Shoppers at a Target store in Brooklyn say a label that listed the color of a plus-size dress as "manatee gray" was insulting. The label for the same dress in smaller sizes described it as "dark heather gray." Target apologized for the label. Michelle Ho, shopping at the store at Atlantic Terminal Mall, told the New York Post that Target was "putting down one set of people over another" with the different labels.

Google is finally opening up its Google Shopping Express service to the public today, with the same day delivery service being made available as a test to select users in San Francisco and the Peninsula from San Mateo to San Jose. Participating retailers include, as we've previously reported: Target, Walgreens, Staples, American Eagle, Toys"R"Us/Babies"R"Us, Office Depot, San Francisco's Blue Bottle Coffee, Raley's Nob Hill Foods, and Palo Alto Toy & Sport.

Welcome to Retail Online Integration's third annual list of the best and brightest women in the cross-channel retail industry. The women highlighted on this list are marketing and merchandising professionals, e-commerce experts, and chief executive officers at cross-channel retail companies of all sizes. They've all helped to position their companies to succeed in today's fast-paced cross-channel retail environment.

Google is wading deeper into the growing pool of online shopping competitors, testing out its ability to provide customers with same-day delivery. This week the company launched a small pilot program in the Bay Area called Google Shopping Express. The service allows online shoppers to order from name-brand stores like Target and Toys"R"Us and have those goods delivered the same day. The service, for now, is free to consumers. Google will make money by taking a commission from the retailer.

The path to operational agility hasn't yet been forged. Lots of companies are investing in technology to get them there, but most are making a fundamental IT mistake. They're trying to solve the agility challenge with the same business software they've been using for the past 30 years. Unfortunately, traditional business software systems come up short when it comes to supply chain orchestration on a global scale. Those systems were designed to work within a single company, not between the different companies and partners which make up a global supply chain.

In this month's edition of SmartBear Software's Retailer Web Performance Report Card, I once again analyze and highlight recent website performance for the top 50 retailers. With the help of SmartBear's AlertSite, I've looked at website response times, accounting for elapsed time for all website objects including images, JavaScript, Flash and third-party objects, collected from various dispersed locations in the first two weeks of March. I also looked at the all-important website availability percentage that measures site accessibility. The lucky (and not so lucky) highlighted retailers this month are Target and J.Crew, respectively.

Mobile technology has empowered consumers to expect to have the information they need, and to consummate the transactions they want, whenever and wherever they are. This ability to have instantaneous access to product information and pricing can be of tremendous benefit to consumers and retailers alike, but in the form of "showrooming" it's become many retailers’ worst nightmare.

This issue's Check it Out profiles a company that couldn't be more aptly named for the department: Coupons at Checkout. Yes, check out what this company is doing on retailers' checkout pages. OK, enough with the bad forced puns and onto the serious business.