Retail by MarketScale

When purchasing athletic gear, most of us focus on the benefits that we can get while wearing our new clothing, but Under Armour is embracing a way to use your receipt to help enrich the experience even more.

Under Armor has announced its selection of ereceipt innovator, flexReceipts, to power its digital receipts across all North American locations.

FlexReceipts will integrate their dynamic digital receipts with Under Armour’s Aptos point-of-sale system to go beyond the traditional paper receipt that we toss away as soon as we get home.

Brent Ott, Senior Manager of Athlete and Teammate Retail Experience for Under Armour explains, "Under Armour athletes [its customers] deserve the best connected experience, and with flexReceipts, we can now engage with brand-right digital receipts that deliver content and product suggestions tailored specifically to each customer.”

The receipt company is backed by Y Combinator and strategic investor Synchrony Financial, among others. FlexReceipts is currently implemented in over 12,000 retail locations across the U.S.

An organized, central gathering location is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the ride-sharing service, Lyft. The pink-mustachioed company has announced a $100M investment in changing that image.

In a move meant to retain, and attract, more drivers, Lyft will be expanding both the number of hub locations, and the amenities provided at each brick-and-mortar outpost.

Operational hours will double at all locations and will include a help desk that will enable drivers to get assistance with such varied issues as career support, filing taxes, and even discounted oil changes and maintenance.

The company will be launching this initiative this summer at all 15 current hubs, as well as constructing additional locations throughout the year.

Lyft is projecting that, even with their eye on autonomous vehicles in the future, there will still be a need for approximately 1.4 million Lyft contractors by 2023.

Marriott International and the retail real estate company Simon are partnering to open 5 new hotels near shopping and restaurant locations. Patrick Peterman, VP of development and asset intensification at Simon said, “There is a great synergy when you combine Marriott’s innovative hotels and Simon’s exciting shopping, dining, entertainment and mixed-use properties… The uses are very complementary.” With trends showing consumers wanting places that they can eat and shop at while staying at their hotel, this plan will enable both Marriott and Simon to provide their customers the best of both experiences.

The competition for online payment dominance has just seen an important change for one of the challengers.

PayPal, traditionally known as a purely digital online payment processor, has made a clear statement regarding its plans with the acquisition of Swedish payment company, iZettle.

While the company already reaches over 225 million active users, this purchase will provide PayPal with exposure to markets where it does not currently have a strong presence.

The price for this move, which will be around $2.2B dollars, is a solid investment in PayPal’s quest to be an end-to-end payment solution. As the retail industry continues to move towards an ever-stabilizing online ecosystem, the ability to accept and process payments for goods and services via a point-of-sale device will serve PayPal well.

This purchase should also put an end to the speculations that PayPal will buy Square. The addition of a physical component to PayPal’s arsenal will, instead, establish it as a serious competitor in the space.

Kroger, apparently, has no plans on just standing still in its position as one of the largest brick-and-mortar grocery chains in the world.

The supermarket giant recently announced a new partnership with U.K.-based e-commerce expert Ocado.

With both Amazon and Walmart striving to increase their respective online footprints, this strategic alliance between Kroger and Ocado will definitely intensify the battle for U.S. e-grocery dominance.

Ocado’s industry-leading automated fulfillment system and customer-friendly interfaces, are part of the reason that it is one of the few e-commerce grocery businesses in the world that is actually profitable. They generated an EBITDA of around $116M in 2017.

Kroger is no stranger to U.K. companies, having previously worked with both Tesco and Dunnhumby on developing customer loyalty programs.

This partnership will see Kroger take about a %5 stake in the European company, valued at approximately $247M.

After a trial run of more than a year, with more than 100 locations involved, Walmart is shelving their Mobile Express Scan and Go app. The app gave customers the option to scan as they shopped, paying from their phones and skipping the checkout line.

Here is your Retail Minute, brought to you by MarketScale.

Toys R Us is looking to sell off its intellectual properties, creating what experts say to be one of

the best brands to ever be sold by a company going out of business.

Domains such as lodges-r-us.com, burgers-r-us.com and even cigars-r-us.com are going to be

up for sale as Toys R Us is in the aftermath of declaring bankruptcy in late 2017.

Bob Phibbs, a brand specialist and chief executive of the Retail Doctor consulting firm said, “It

shows the power of the brand… The ‘R’ Us is the key to the brand, not the Toys.”

Though the company has fallen on hard times, it's nice to know that the brand has left a lasting

legacy for us.

I’m Bret Brown, and this has been your Retail Minute, brought to you by MarketScale.

Target is testing the old adage that “Sometimes less is more”, with a new distribution model. The retailer is examining a project called a “flow center”. This small-format, quick-response pilot program is being cultivated in the Perth Amboy, N.J. warehouse.

US-based startup SuperMoney revealed it's new point of sale system which will help small businesses better manage their finances. It not only links businesses with banks for the most effective financing offers, but makes them more transparent for customers, too.

Small Graf: Amazon and Sears made a new deal allowing Sears to perform tire services for any brand tires purchased on Amazon's website. The hope is that this partnership will bring more traffic to Sears stores.