Ann Taylor

ANN Inc., the parent company of Ann Taylor and Loft, has launched AnnCares360, a program in partnership with Good360, the nonprofit leader in product philanthropy. The program will facilitate the donation of available displays, marketing items and fixtures to local charities that support women and children. Through the program, all ANN Inc. stores can enter valued, reusable goods into a tracking system that will link to Good360's online product donation marketplace and its network of more than 26,000 charities. 

As Ann Taylor emerges from its midlife crisis, the 58-year-old women's clothing chain is counting on a makeover to pull it out of the doldrums. Parent ANN INC. has a plan to replace its aging fleet of large Ann Taylor stores with smaller, more contemporary outposts that make women feel as if they have walked into their dream closet.

Ann Taylor may be better known as your mother's favorite store than your own, but thanks to a new campaign it looks set to become a fashion destination for those in their 20s too. The online lookbook takes its lead from street style blogs like Scott Schumann's Sartorialist and Jak and Jill, featuring girls from universities across the U.S. wearing the label's latest collections.

NEW YORK — Ann Inc., formerly known as Ann Taylor, reported a 33.4% rise in quarterly net income to $32.3 million, beating analysts’ estimates. The company’s performance was boosted by strong demand for its Loft brand, where same-store sales rose 7.9%. Same-store sales rose 2.5% at Ann Taylor. Comp-sales were up 45.8% in the Ann Taylor ecommerce channel and 1.8% in the Ann Taylor Factory channel. Total same-store sales were up 5.5%. "Compelling product and effective marketing drove significantly higher sales and profitability across all Loft channels," said CEO Kay Krill said in a statement Total net sales for

Kohl's is the nation's favorite fashion retail chain, according to an annual consumer survey conducted by Market Force Information, a provider of customer intelligence solutions. This is the third year in a row that Kohl's has earned the top spot.

ANN INC., parent to the Ann Taylor and LOFT brands, announced it will launch a four-year investment in young women’s leadership. According to ANN President and CEO Kay Krill, who joined with women’s leadership organization Vital Voices President and CEO Alyse Nelson, the pair will launch ANNpower Vital Voices Initiative.

The growth of the web over the last decade-and-a-half has been a mixed blessing for brick-and-mortar retailers. While it's created a vast array of new customer touchpoints, it's also introduced the pernicious problem of maintaining those touchpoints across channels.

Retailers who once envisioned a vast new market of mobile shoppers eagerly hitting “buy” on their smartphones have run headlong into a harsh reality: their customers are all thumbs.

The cross-channel retail industry is at a crossroads. For starters, due to the economic downturn, the past couple of years have been difficult for the retail sector. But that's changing. Retailers are starting to see signs of life and are breathing a sigh of relief. At press time, for example, it was announced that February retail sales increased 0.6 percent over January and 4.2 percent year-over-year, according to the National Retail Federation.

The more active a brand is on Facebook, the better chance consumers will "Like" it. This was the key finding from a recent study on retailers' growth on Facebook and Twitter conducted by marketing agency Media Logic. However, a follow-up study released this month shows that the majority of brands on Facebook saw their growth on the social media site lose steam as the holiday season came and went.