Retail Stores

Using measurements of employee satisfaction, treatment of customers and commitment to sustainability, the 2012 Good Company Index is the source of the Best Retailers to Work For list. See where Nordstrom, Whole Foods, Amazon and Costco ranked among the...

Apple has been granted a trademark by the U.S. government for the design and layout of its retail stores, according to a filing at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The company had applied for the trademark back in 2010, but it was rejected twice before finally being approved now, according to ifoAppleStore. The trademark covers the glass storefront, furniture arrangement, shelving, Genius Bar and more. 

Abercrombie & Fitch wants to turn the building that once housed the Beatles’ Apple Records into one of its namesake children’s stores, Bloomberg News reported. The building is where the famed singing group performed together for the last...

The drive by savvy retailers to differentiate themselves in 2013 and beyond will compel them to engage in an omnichannel "retail arms race" to deliver the most advanced, customized experience across all touchpoints with customers. Forward-looking IT departments will confront the challenges of integrating new capabilities by future-proofing their commerce architectures. The smartest merchants are getting a head start in the arms race by embracing next-generation cloud solutions, purpose-built to deliver five key capabilities for omnichannel commerce:

J.Crew thought its men's business was considered irrelevant and wanted to rebrand it. At the time [2007-2008] there were a lot of blogs about menswear that gave a lot of smaller brands an outsized footprint and large reach. J.Crew was making great products which had amazing attention to detail, it just wasn't part of the conversation. Mickey Drexler, CEO of J.Crew, asked what it could do to remedy that: Was it a national campaign or rethinking its catalog? Our answer was a small space with no overt branding that was outside the retail corridor. 

It's that time of year again, when America's largest retailers release those critical holiday season figures and disclose their annual sales. A review of these numbers tells us a great deal about how most of the companies will do in the upcoming year. And while successful retailers in 2012 may add brick-and-mortar stores this year, those that have performed very poorly may have to cut locations during 2013 to improve margins or reverse losses.

Call it a retail revival. After getting crushed by big-box stores during the 1980s and 1990s, mom-and-pop shops are enjoying something of a rebirth among U.S. consumers. Thanks to a little thing called the internet and the ubiquity of computing devices, consumers don't have to settle for more commoditized versions of their groceries, clothing or housewares. Between the corner coffee shop selling its dark roast across the U.S. and cheesemongers detailing the delights of Rogue River Blue to out-of-state shoppers, consumers can access the neighborhood store even if they move.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) released its 2013 economic forecast today, projecting retail industry sales (which exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants) will increase 3.4 percent, slightly less than the preliminary 4.2 percent growth seen in 2012. The subdued forecast comes on the heels of a holiday season that went head-to-head with Washington's political wrangling over fiscal concerns, shifting consumers’ spending plans downward. In the end, holiday sales in 2012 grew 3.0 percent.

Barnes & Noble has put up an excellent fight over the past few years against the rising tide of digital competitors like the iPad, Kindle Fire, etc., but it would seem that the bookseller has still come up a bit short, as the The Wall Street Journal reports that the company has plans to shut down nearly 20 stores per year over the course of the next decade. Just last week, we learned that Barnes & Noble had a rough holiday sales season with a 10.9 percent sales decrease from the previous year's holiday season. 

Saks Fifth Avenue is amping up its omnichannel strategy by updating its SaksFirst loyalty program and adding free shipping. The changes will make the benefits of the program more consistent across Saks' different channels. On Thursday, Saks announced that all Saks' cardholders will now receive free shipping from Saks stores, Saks.com and Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th stores.