Branding

In Fashion, Gender Lines Are Blurring
August 20, 2015 at 2:29 pm

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 โ€” items that they wear themselves and offer in varying sizes to both women and men. They are among the latest in a raftโ€ฆ

How Samโ€™s Club is Aiming to Be Less Like Wal-Mart
August 17, 2015 at 4:33 pm

Samโ€™s Club wants to move beyond its parentโ€™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.

The Story of Ashley Stewart's Turnaround
August 13, 2015 at 12:29 pm

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 โ€“ one that it would very likely neverโ€ฆ

ModCloth Expands its Reach With New Label, Hybrid Retail Model
August 12, 2015 at 3:19 pm

Fashion can be a fickle thing. Fads come and go. Sartorial tastes change. Even the ways we shop go in and out of style. โ€œItโ€™s really important to be willing to try new things,โ€ says Susan Gregg Koger, co-founder and chief creative officer of ModCloth, the e-commerce site specializing in vintage-inspired fashions and accessories. Plentyโ€ฆ

Sephora Fans Are Calling Epic Rewards Day an 'Epic Fail'
August 12, 2015 at 1:18 pm

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 trainingโ€ฆ

Abercrombie & Fitch to End On-Call Shifts for Workers
August 11, 2015 at 1:23 pm

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 regulatorโ€™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 retailersโ€ฆ

GNC Trying to Broaden its Appeal
August 10, 2015 at 2:32 pm

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 marketโ€ฆ

Alibaba Boosts Fight Against Fakes to Lure Big Brands
August 7, 2015 at 4:19 pm

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.โ€ฆ

Target to Rebrand CityTarget, TargetExpress Stores as Just Target
August 5, 2015 at 1:21 pm

As Target Corp. began rolling out smaller-format stores in the past few years, their names โ€” CityTarget and TargetExpress โ€” sometimes sparked confusion. While CityTarget stores located in dense urban areas are generally smaller than Targetโ€™s other big-box stores, that wasnโ€™t the case with the CityTarget store that opened last month next to Fenway Park inโ€ฆ

Alibaba Teams Up With Kobe Bryant
August 4, 2015 at 3:32 pm

Alibaba has partnered with Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant to create and distribute a series of Kobe-branded products in China and to release his documentary โ€œKobe Bryantโ€™s Muse.โ€ Demand for Bryantโ€™s merchandise in China might seem an oddity to many, but Bryant has a strong fan base among the NBA-crazed Chinese millennials. โ€œWe are thrilledโ€ฆ