Retail Stores

RadioShack plans to close up to 1,100 of its underperforming stores in the U.S. and reported a wider loss for its fourth quarter as customer traffic slowed during the critical holiday season. CEO Joseph Magnacca said in statement that the planned store closings would leave RadioShack with more than 4,000 U.S. stores, including more than 900 dealer franchise locations. The company didn't immediately identify what stores are being closed. The electronics retailer said that the stores to be closed are being selected based on location, area demographics, lease duration and financial performance.

With digital commerce attracting a lot of attention, it's sometimes easy to forget just how valuable physical retail remains. While tech gurus like Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen may predict the impending doom of offline stores, there's no evidence that, in the highly tactile fashion industry, sales at physical retail stores won't continue to dominate as a proportion of total sales volume. 

Excitement abounds at Macy's. The company reported total sales of $27.9 billion, comparable store sales grew 2.8 percent (which includes sales from licensed departments), earnings rose 19 percent to $3.86 billion. The stores look terrific. Renovation of the Herald Square store is about 85 percent complete and is brimming with name brand vendors, from Gucci to Vuitton, Burberry to Longchamps, Michael Kors to Coach, Hermes to Tumi and Tom Ford to Bobbi Brown. The store has a new look, with updated departments such as the new shoe floor.

Sears Holdings said a review of its systems doesn't show evidence yet of a data breach as retailers continue to stay on guard in light of the payment card terminal hacking at Target and Neiman Marcus. The department store chain is the latest company to say it's investigating a possible breach. "There have been rumors and reports throughout the retail industry of security incidents at various retailers, and we're actively reviewing our systems to determine if we've been a victim of a breach," wrote Howard Riefs, director of corporate communications at Sears Holdings, in an email.

The retail battle is on: To help shoppers sort through the noise of the web, discover new products and receive an individualized or special shopping experience like that found in a high-end store, online retailers have pulled out all the stops. In addition to adopting product recommendation technologies aimed at providing an Amazonian shopping experience, some retailers are focusing efforts on the product mix.

When Canadians crossed the border into the United States on shopping excursions, Target was a prime destination. But when Target crossed the border last year and brought its stores to Canada, the magic somehow vanished. Lost in the turmoil over the immense theft of Target's customer information in the U.S. has been the remarkable failure of its Canadian expansion. Instead of reaching profitability by the end of the year, as Target had hoped, analysts expect that the company will report this week that the Canadian operations produced an $8 billion to $9 billion loss. 

Wal-Mart disappointed investors on many fronts Thursday when it missed earnings forecasts, posted its fourth consecutive U.S. same-store sales loss and offered fiscal 2015 guidance well below what analysts were expecting. But despite myriad pressures that continue to inhibit the store's target low-income shopper, there was a bright spot amid all the gloom. The discounter announced that it will accelerate the expansion of its small-format stores, an area which many analysts have called integral in the evolving shopping environment.

There's a new network effect taking place. From inventory management to point-of-sale systems to on-site Wi-Fi networks, retailers now rely on network connections to support traditional brick-and-mortar operations and extend new services to in-store customers. While connectivity is crucial, however, many in the retail industry underestimate how much it's reshaping the IT landscape. The online and in-store domains are converging, and retailers need a strong infrastructure foundation to ensure business operations continue to run smoothly.

Listen in to this lively webinar where we outline steps retailers need to take to make sure data breach doesn’t happen to them.

There is a crisis in retail. During the 2013 holiday shopping season, U.S. retailers received approximately half the holiday foot traffic they experienced just three years ago, according to ShopperTrak. With consumer confidence growing in leaps and bounds, the decline in foot traffic signifies a tectonic shift in the way consumers shop and buy. Today's consumers lead busy lives and