Retail Stores

After a tough day at work as a publicist in Minneapolis, Becca Bijoch would often indulge in a little retail therapy. She usually headed out to the stores as she didn't care much for online shopping. That changed last year when the 26-year-old joined Pinterest, a photo-sharing website that allows users to "pin" images to online bulletin boards based on their interests and to follow others. Bijoch says she's found all sorts of things that she bought after seeing them on Pinterest, from great kitchen tools on CrateandBarrel.com to clothes at Asos.com.

In the largest showrooming study to date, Placed identified Best Buy and Target as high-risk retailers for Amazon.com customers to view offline and buy online. Surprisingly, Best Buy and Target weren't the most at risk for showroomers taking over their aisles. The results from the Placed: Aisle to Amazon Study found that consumers who showroom and then purchase on Amazon are 20 percent more likely to visit Best Buy and 15 percent more likely to visit Target than average, but Bed Bath & Beyond, PetSmart and Toys"R"Us all face greater risk.

In a recent J.C.Penney marketing circular inserted in The New York Times, the company highlighted some fashions that will soon be in stores. Prominently showcased were dresses designed by Georgina Chapman of Marchesa for fast-living floozies. On the next page was matching lingerie by Cosabella Amore. This was followed by L'Amour by Nanette Lepore, apparel that will not be tolerated in any high school. It's only when we get to Joe Fresh, that we see any representation of modest and conservative fashion — the type the old J.C.Penney customer bought.

Retailers are blessed with extensive data about their customers and their shopping behavior. This data comes in the form of offline and online purchase data, extensive email databases, response data, loyalty card databases, direct mail response data, social media data, and website data.  Despite this wealth of information and most retailers' extensive history and expertise in offline modeling, I'm shocked to see that many continue to struggle with merging siloed information and leveraging it across the new digital landscape.

A scroll through the Facebook Timelines of Bebe, Foot Locker and 1-800-Flowers.com reveals a common trait: each anchors its content with repeating themes and formats. Find out what these three brands are doing right — and wrong — with their Facebook marketing programs in this month's Retail Social Juice Index Spotlight.

Warby Parker, the hip purveyor of retro-style glasses, has solidified ties with two of its most prominent fans. Now the three-year-old startup can count Millard S. Drexler, the chief executive of J.Crew, and American Express as participants in its latest round of financing, which closed last month at $41.5 million. The two join an already expansive group of investors that includes General Catalyst Partners, Spark Capital, Tiger Global Management, Thrive Capital and Menlo Ventures.

British fashion mogul Sir Philip Green plans to open 10 more Topshop stores in the U.S. within two-and-a-half years, after launching its first California branch in Los Angeles last week. Topshop, which is part of Green's fashion conglomerate Arcadia Group, also has branches in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas, as well as a partnership with upscale fashion department store Nordstrom.

Rumors came out over the weekend that Office Depot Inc. and OfficeMax finally are considering a long-awaited and long-speculated merger. This will not be an easy merger, but it is one that will make the office supplies...

Last week, 9to5Google reported that it learned from an "extremely reliable source" that Google plans to open retail stores later this year. While Google hasn't confirmed the rumor and, in fact, as recently as December the company insisted that it had no plans to open retail outlets, there are indications, such as the Chrome mini stores that have launched at Best Buy's in the U.S. and Dixon's in the U.K., stand-alone storefronts are the next logical step in its go-to-market strategy.

While the company’s retail stores continue to play a critical role in building the Apple brand, the performance of this portion of the business has been mixed of late, according to Needham’s Charlie Wolf. The analyst found that Apple’s...