Retail Stores

Juicy Couture opened a flagship in Beijing on Oct. 20. The store, located in Sanlitun, resembles a château in its design, and features herringbone floors as well as a pink, yellow and blue color scheme. 

eBay and designer Jonathan Adler have opened The eBay Inspiration Shop — a 24/7 shoppable storefront in New York City showcasing a collection of new, must-have merchandise for the fall season. The “always-open” store windows enable shoppers to browse and buy the very moment inspiration strikes, leveraging eBay’s mobile technology to shop anytime, anywhere, anyhow.

Dollar General is offering a 10 percent discount on toy purchases of $100 or more during the holiday season. The dollar store chain said the discount will be in effect through Dec. 24 at all of its 9,600 locations, which cover 36 states.

Joe Fresh, the Canadian value-priced apparel brand, has opened its first permanent U.S. store in New Jersey and another in New York. The company will make its New York City debut in Manhattan’s Flat Iron District on Nov.3. A second store will open in the spring on Fifth Ave.

Coming soon to your local Wal-Mart: more craft beer. In another sign that the fast-growing segment is going mainstream, the nation's largest retailer and biggest beer seller is planning to add shelf space to accommodate more craft brews, former Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott told distributors this week at their annual convention in Las Vegas.

Armed with savvy shopping skills and a renewed focus on value, consumers this holiday season will shop at a variety of locations and channels as they scope out ways to get the best bang for their buck.

Retailers taking advantage of marketing in the digital world might see more of a benefit at the check-out counter. The NYU Stern School of Business Center for Measurable Marketing joined social media monitoring company Crimson Hexagon to complete a recent study that revealed a positive correlation between social media and store traffic.

Impulse purchases require people to browse the aisles, but that’s happening less these days because web-savvy consumers often already know what they plan to buy and simply pick it up and leave, said Bill Martin, chief executive officer of ShopperTrak.  

A new research report, 2011 Temkin Trust Ratings, examines the level of trust that consumers have in 143 large U.S. companies. The research is based on a survey of 6,000 U.S. consumers, who rated their recent customer service interactions with companies across 12 industries. Only eight companies earned "very strong" ratings while 26 earned "very weak" ratings.

Wal-Mart expects toys to be best-sellers this holiday season as its toy prices are lower than competitors Target and Kmart, according to a Bloomberg Industries analysis.