Retail Stores

Guitar Center's recent business woes are indicative of a bigger problem across the industry. Standard & Poor's cut Guitar Center's debt rating to junk status because it doesn't expect falling sales and disappointing profits to improve anytime soon, retail analyst Eric Garland writes on his blog. Guitar Center is indicative of all of the problems with traditional big-box retail, Garland writes. "Guitar Center has the remnants of an inferior business model, one that prizes huge brand names, big volumes, low wages and nonexistent character," he says. 

Aggressive discounts on clothes and toys lured slightly more consumers into stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year, but budget-conscious shoppers spent less. Total spending from Thursday through Sunday fell 3 percent from a year earlier to $57.4 billion, with shoppers spending an average of $407.02, down 4 percent from $423.55 a year earlier, according to the National Retail Federation. The retail trade group said the number of people who went shopping over the four-day weekend that kicked off with Thanksgiving rose slightly to 141 million, up from 139 million last year. 

While leveraging big data by using software, apps and point-of-sale technology can help retailers handle everything from holiday hiring to inventory management in the days leading up to and following Black Friday and Cyber Monday, one of the most useful applications for big data technology this holiday season is in countering showrooming, a phenomenon that's been on every brick-and-mortar retailer's mind as they make preparations for their busiest season of the year.

Every year, retail employees are tasked with learning and selling seasonal items along with brand staples to provide the best experience possible for consumers. Believe it or not, customer service will be the defining key to sales this holiday season. One crucial element of customer service is trust. If a consumer doesn't trust a brand and its products, they're unlikely to make a purchase. It's critical for sales associates and brands to present shoppers with knowledgeable insights that aid in the purchasing process to earn trust.

Ad Age takes a look at one of the first Google pop-up locations in Manhattan.

Despite conventional industry wisdom, shoppers who use mobile devices for showrooming are almost twice as likely to purchase from the retailer in-store or online (38 percent) than buy elsewhere (21.6 percent). A new study from e-commerce technology provider SeeWhy finds that one-third of more than 60,000 consumers surveyed who owned a mobile device had used it as part of their shopping process, and 12 percent do it routinely. When asked about the actions shoppers took when using a mobile device in-store, the most common behaviors were looking for cheaper prices elsewhere (35 percent) and reading reviews of the product (34 percent).

Apple wants to make holiday shopping easier with the iPad's first-ever retail app, which comes loaded with features to make product discovery more seamless. The Apple Store for iPad is designed specifically for iOS 7, capitalizing on using gestures to find more products from Apple's online store. It essentially wraps up everything currently listed for sale on Apple.com and packages it up in one easy-to-navigate app. Since iPhone users typically use their devices to look up store directions and get information about products quickly, Apple created a different experience for the iPad with deeper swipe, zoom and gesture functionality.

H&M plans to offer customers a new, high-tech brand experience this week with the opening of its flagship store at 4 Times Square. The flagship store — equipped with 300 employees, 44 fitting rooms, 24 cash registers and longer hours of operation seven days a week — is set up to manage high-volume traffic and sales. The company and brokers alike both expect this pricy investment in Times Square will pay off, considering stores in that location often have higher sales volume.

It's the last picture show for Blockbuster. The retail company that introduced millions of Americans to stay-home movie nights said Wednesday it will close its 300 remaining U.S. stores by early January next year. Its DVD-by-mail business, introduced as a competitor to Netflix, also will be shut down by mid-December. "This isn't an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment," said Joseph Clayton, CEO of Dish Network, Blockbuster's parent company. 

Edwin Watts Golf Shops, which sells golf equipment and apparel online and through 90 U.S. retail stores, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, owned by an affiliate of private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners Inc., listed assets and liabilities between $100 million and $500 million. Callaway Golf Co. is the largest unsecured creditor, with a claim of $4.6 million, according to papers filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.