Wagner, Lustre There were more than 2,000 store closings in 2017. But retail stores are part of the character of the streets we walk every day. Is a “wellness” floor in a department store a magnet for people like this group of consumers? By Erica Baird and Karen E. MORE

One noteworthy observation is the early adoption of the trend by large department stores, including Macy’s, Nordstrom, Kohl’s, and Target, while fast fashion retailers such as Forever 21 and Revolve Clothing arrive relatively later to the game. While it appears that large department stores such as Nordstrom and Macy’s were early participants, they’d only really begun to invest in the trend in late 2016/early 2017 when it became more pronounced. MORE

In recent years, it has expanded to offer shirts, suits and other men’s clothing, and has opened dozens of brick-and-mortar locations, as well as boutiques in Nordstrom department stores, a previous investor in the start-up. MORE

Sourcing Journal’s article Black Friday in Review: The Winners, The Losers, The Dollars and the Deals discusses the industry’s Black Friday results: consumers capitalized on the best deals, Millennials spent the most money, and department stores underperformed. MORE

The research firm graded the brands based websites, store locators, fulfillment, ecommerce, email, mobile, and social media. Leader brands are lauded for making discovery effortless and sync local store inventories to checkout pages. MORE

So far in 2017 store closing announcements have increased 97% year-over-year. Before jumping to any conclusions, check out these recent hot takes from the experts on the rise of online shopping, and the move away from in-store purchasing. MORE

Every single retail store in the US to close permanently by month’s end. Stop blaming Amazon for department store woes. Department stores aren’t going away, but 3 big things still need to happen. The store closing panacea. As is my tradition, here’s my annual recap of my 2017 posts that got the most traffic. Once again my April Fool’s Day one easily grabs the top position. MORE

Fortunately this also means that the holiday hangover period is officially over, and grocery stores are beginning to be filled with chocolate eggs and all things pastel for Easter. Alongside the extended weekend often come sales for cars, furniture, and more retail department stores. MORE

Macy’s incoming CEO Jeff Gennette revealed at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Consumer & Retail Technology Conference last week that the department store plans on making significant changes to its struggling brick-and-mortar presence. Recently, this same store was slashed in half. MORE

Department stores and other general merchandise stores, like supercenters and warehouse clubs, have been hit especially hard, shedding 89,000 jobs from November through March, according to the New York Times. MORE

Owned retail store : 24.7%. In 1879, British stores began dedicating areas to ‘Santa Land’ where customers could wander around immersed in Christmas scenery. Did Coca-Cola create the modern day Santa Claus? Is Mr. Potato Head responsible for reshaping holiday TV advertising? MORE

By Glenn Taylor, Senior Editor The Amazon Go convenience store opening in January 2018 shed light on the next new shiny concept in retail — cashierless, checkout-free stores. For one, there are approximately 100 cameras on the Amazon Go store ceiling. MORE

Penney recently announced its fourth quarter earnings as well as plans to shutter as many as 140 stores. Moreover, Penney’s comparable stores sales fell “only” 0.7%, materially better than their direct competitors, indicating some growth in relative market share. The company also continues to experience double-digit e-commerce growth with some 75% of online orders “touching” a physical store. MORE

Imagine if — as you were entering the parking lot of a department store — you saw dozens of employees with clipboards asking everyone who got out of their car to sign up for an email list. Would you park your car and go into the store? Popups can be useful. MORE

It takes a lot of effort for manufacturers to maintain, store and distribute that data across the entire ecosystem, let alone ensure retailers or marketplaces like Amazon know where to go for the information. You walk into a department store and you find t-shirts, batteries, candy, and shoes on the same shelf. MORE

In case you haven’t heard, physical retail stores are dying. In 2018 alone, there have already been multiple large retail chains that have filed for bankruptcy including Claire’s (Jewelry), Bon-Ton (Department Store), B&B Bachrach (Men’s Apparel) and everyone’s favorite toy store, Toys R Us. Not surprisingly, this is not sustainable and results in closure and bankruptcy of these stores. MORE

Not only have they been swept up in the long-term decline of the moderate department store sector, but they also hemorrhaged huge amounts of market share during Ron Johnson’s failed re-boot. Store closings muddy the picture. Both Penney’s own store closings and those of competitors put pressure on pricing as stores liquidate merchandise. Amazon clearly has its eyes set on growing market share in traditional department store categories. MORE

Well, by simply enabling the B2B module you’ll be able to reach an entirely new range of markets and buyers (such as department stores). Multi-store and International Solutions Let’s look at another example of how upgrading to Magento Commerce 2.2 MORE

When we look at the retail landscape today, we see what boils down to three broad tiers of store success: – Tier 3 – Struggling: This tier is reserved for traditional, slow-to-adapt department stores. MORE

RevTech , a venture accelerator focused on developing early-stage retail technology companies, is hosting its 11 th semi-annual Tech Trends in Retail event in the flagship Neiman Marcus store in Dallas on April 5. MORE

First, in aggregate, regional malls–and their department store anchors–have been on the decline for more than two decades. The most recent wave of disruption has come mostly from the rise of off-price and dollar stores. As growing retailers situate new stores in growing suburban areas with favorable demographics, we often witness a shift in an area’s “retail center of gravity.” Digital Retail Store closings MORE

To be sure, the overall shift away from physical store shopping is profound, but nothing unexpected is happening, at least thus far, when it comes to this particular holiday season. Of course, some sectors–I’m looking at you department stores!–are Several chains, including Sears and Bon-Ton Stores, are facing existential crises, where a bad quarter could lead to their liquidation (or, minimally, additional massive store closings). MORE

Department of Commerce data shows that ecommerce sales currently average about 9.1% Most businesses with an ecommerce presence use an ecommerce store and/or an ecommerce platform to conduct both online marketing and sales activities and to oversee logistics and fulfillment. MORE

It has few new store openings to execute within its core concepts, it is very well penetrated in e-commerce, and there are not a ton of readily accessible wholly new categories (or geographies) to expand into. As I’ve been suggesting for many years , same (or comparable) store sales is an increasingly irrelevant metric , and as Brent Franson and I tackled more recently, the shifting nature of retail demands a whole new set of performance measures. Recently a roughly $8.4 MORE

Amidst reports that holiday spending was up nearly 4.9% , some optimism about the American moderate department store sector has started to creep back in. Tighter inventories, store closings and other expense reductions should lead to year-over-year profit improvements. As I pointed out several months ago , at least two major things must happen before any optimism about the prospects of any of the middle market department store brands is warranted. MORE

And then when they headed to pick up their purchases at stores, they bought even more. National Retail Federation and Commerce Department Report Better-Than-Expected Holiday Season Sales. The Commerce Department also showed an increase of 0.4% MORE

It’s the main reason why shoppers still prefer physical stores over Amazon and eBay. Ebay has partnered with Myer to create the world’s first virtual department store. Augmented reality is an ecommerce technology changing the way people buy online. MORE

It’s been a long, slow slide for department stores. In addition, Sycamore looks to be picking at the carcass of Bon-Ton Stores and Lord & Taylor is selling its iconic Manhattan flagship to WeWork. MORE

Last week we had five major department stores report their quarterly earnings: Macy’s , Kohl’s , Nordstrom , Dillard’s and JCPenney. The main reason is that department stores failed to innovate. There is no fundamental reason why any given department store cannot not have a viable operation with hundreds of physical locations, particularly when we realize that some 80% of all products in core department store categories are purchased offline. MORE

Protecting systems from complex and sophisticated data breaches is difficult enough, but it is even harder within a distributed store IT environment, such as those in nationwide retail chains or franchise businesses. MORE

department stores reported earnings recently, a certain level of ebullience took hold. Given how beaten down the moderate department store sector has been, a strong quarter or two might seem like cause for celebration–or at least guarded optimism. As most U.S. MORE

Nike has forged a strong direct-to-consumer (DTC) push, aiming to cut product creation cycle times in half and uniting its web site, stores and digital products under a single team called Nike Direct. In another case that feels like déjà vu, department stores are falling on the sword. “If MORE

For whatever reasons, if Macy’s moves forward with removing Ivanka’s line from stores, it better be prepared to handle whatever comes its way as a result. MORE

In 1924, Macy’s welcomed the world’s largest department store with their first parade in New York City. Macy’s employees dressed up and marched alongside animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo, leading a giant Santa Claus for 6 miles from Harlem to the store at Herald Square. MORE

‘With a repeal of net neutrality, the social platforms may have the capability of becoming the new department stores,’ said Sarah Engel, chief marketing officer of DynamicAction. ‘Besides Amazon, they may become the only ‘department stores’ that can afford to offer the selection of amazing brands that rotate quickly enough to satisfy the consumers’ desires.’ MORE

From online shopping with free overnight shipping to department stores opening on holidays, the retail industry is all about convenience. MORE

She brought in new designers, made department stores the ‘new playground’ with bars for people to meet up (after walking through the shop floor) and literally gave these stores a new avenue for sales. Markets slowly evolved into department stores, which in turn became tourist attractions (or ‘mausoleums’, in Portas’s words) rather than shopping places. Department stores can take what others are doing and do it better. MORE

The holiday season in major cities around the world is typically heralded by seasonal window retail displays put up by department stores and retailers large and small. One of the first major holiday window displays was put up by Macy’s New York store in 1874. MORE

Department stores have notoriously long, complex supply chains – take it from a leading specialty retailer with more than 30 brands offered in-store and online. The post Leading department store chooses Bamboo Rose to revamp its backend appeared first on Bamboo Rose. MORE

Among the many presentations by Salesforce execs and retailers, there was a refreshing emphasis on how various technologies would be used by real-world store associates to enhance the experience of real-world shoppers. MORE