Branding

Gazing over a spread of magazines on a side table in her New York office on Broadway, Federica Marchionni eagerly flips through the pages to find her advertisements inside. For the new Lands’ End chief executive officer, this is her big unveil, the first time she gets to show what she’s been working on since…

Ms. Wesson and Aimee Cho, her business partner, have, after all, poured their style convictions into 1.61, a year-old gender-free label built largely on loosefitting trousers, swagger coats and easy shirts — items that they wear themselves and offer in varying sizes to both women and men. They are among the latest in a raft…

Sam’s Club wants to move beyond its parent’s DNA. The warehouse-club retailer, owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., for years has struggled to turn around sluggish sales. Now it's pursuing a more fundamental fix: breaking away from the low-income consumers who shop at Wal-Mart.

Plus-size fashion apparel brand Ashley Stewart was on the verge of going out of business in 2013. The brand had been unprofitable for years, lacked direction and talent, had a toxic culture, and was days away from a second bankruptcy filing in a little over three years – one that it would very likely never…

Fashion can be a fickle thing. Fads come and go. Sartorial tastes change. Even the ways we shop go in and out of style. “It’s really important to be willing to try new things,” says Susan Gregg Koger, co-founder and chief creative officer of ModCloth, the e-commerce site specializing in vintage-inspired fashions and accessories. Plenty…

Monday was Epic Rewards day at Sephora, a promotion in which Sephora Beauty Insider Points of 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 or 10,000 could be redeemed for really, really good gifts. As in 10,000 points could get you a trip to Paris to visit Lancome, or $500 of Make Up For Ever products along with a training…

Abercrombie & Fitch said on Friday that it would no longer require workers to be on call for shifts that may be canceled with little notice, after a regulator’s inquiry into the practice. The office of the New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, said in April that it was investigating 13 large retailers…

At the dawn of its 81st year of operation, GNC Holdings Inc., the giant Pittsburgh vitamin and supplement retailer, is recrafting its body builder image to a warmer, more inclusive health and wellness resource for everyone. For Michael Archbold, who just marked his first anniversary as CEO, the reason behind the strategy is simple: The market…

Alibaba has launched an English-language version of its fakes hotline after it signed exclusive deals with international retailers in a push to draw more global brands to its platform. China has gained a reputation for knock-off products and Alibaba has been trying to combat the problem on its own e-commerce sites over the past year.…

As Target Corp. began rolling out smaller-format stores in the past few years, their names — CityTarget and TargetExpress — sometimes sparked confusion. While CityTarget stores located in dense urban areas are generally smaller than Target’s other big-box stores, that wasn’t the case with the CityTarget store that opened last month next to Fenway Park in…