Nordstrom

The Honest Company’s Jessica Alba and CEO Brian Lee offered an open, honest and frank assessment about their eco-friendly e-commerce st

Led by relentless retail guru Mickey Drexler, Madewell is in expansion mode. It will ramp its store count up to 100 this year and is growing its availability at outside retailers to include Net-a-Porter and, beginning yesterday, Nordstrom. The department store landed 70 styles for its first delivery, which includes outerwear, easy dresses, and denim from shirts to shorts to flares. Tricia Smith, Nordstrom's executive vice president and general merchandise manager of women's apparel, said the partnership was Madewell's idea.

Madewell sells youthful products developed by its creator Mickey Drexler. Recently Pete Nordstrom, the merchandising head of his company, inked a pact to sell Madewell styles in Nordstrom stores starting on March 2. While the products are priced somewhat below Nordstrom's typical prices, the products resonate with the youthful Nordstrom customer, and that's key to Nordstrom's rationale to carry some of the assortment in its stores. Madewell is a division of J. Crew Group Inc. Its Chairman and CEO, Mickey Drexler, is a brilliant merchant — one the most innovative in retailing. 

In order to meet rising consumer expectations, we've seen one technology distinguish itself as an easy-to-implement and cost-effective way to transform an otherwise traditional physical shopping space into a connected store: beacons.

Before jumping to the conclusion that social media and e-commerce have left the mall deserted, it's important to think about what you can leverage from social media listening and interaction. What should retailers and brands be thinking about in order to capitalize on their physical store investments?

In the final stretch of the holiday season, big retailers are battling for the attention of the social shopper. This year, social engagement for the retail industry increased an average 96%, trending slightly lower than the average 110% growth for all U.S. brands. However, not all platforms are created equal when it comes to the social shopper: Facebook has declined by 25% across all retail brands, Twitter has spiked by 291%, and Instagram has grown by 190%.

In an interview with Retail Online Integration yesterday at the National Retail Federation's Big Show in New York City, Charlie Larkin, senior director of the GameStop Technology Institute (GTI), discussed why the retailer believes technology and innovation are critical to its future, as well as some of the cool new things GameStop is doing to connect the digital and physical worlds in its stores.  

With 2015 nearly upon us, the staff here at Retail Online Integration (ROI) thought it would be a good idea to first look back before looking forward. With that in mind, we've compiled a list of the 10 most popular content pieces — articles, blogs, videos, podcasts — from this year based on total number of page views. The list encompasses a diverse mix of topics, including some of the newer, hipper retail technologies such as Apple Pay contrasted with a traditional stalwart such as catalog marketing. This is your chance to dig into the topics and issues that were most relevant to you this year. Enjoy!

It's a scenario that's unfortunately all-too-common for retailers: You create an exciting sale or product event during the busy holiday season, and a flood of shoppers come online to scoop up the deals. But soon after the merchandise is posted, your site begins to waver and then crash due to the weight of the increased traffic. How can you ensure consumers enjoy a secure, fast and engaging shopping experience — and one that doesn't crash — on your website this holiday season? To find out, I spoke with Gopal Brugalette, the applied architect for Nordstrom's performance engineering team

It's hard to believe we're less than a month away from Thanksgiving. Over the last few years, retailers have opened their stores earlier and earlier on Black Friday in order to cash in on the holiday shopping frenzy. So much so that Black Friday doorbuster sales have crept — uninvited — into our Thanksgiving dinners. Big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart and Toys"R"Us have gone on record as to how opening on Thanksgiving has increased their sales drastically. But honestly, how in the world did 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving turn into the new midnight for Black Friday sales?