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Target gives up on Canada
In today’s fast fail retailing world, few have failed as fast or as spectacularly as Target in Canada. After racking up losses in the area of $2 billion in under…
Macy’s restructure plans bring news of possible off-price chain
Macy’s sophisticated omnichannel strategies and ongoing rollout of innovative and useful shopping tools has won the chain points with tech-savvy consumers. But with recent news of the company’s restructuring, it…
What do the Golden Globe wins really mean for Amazon.com?
“To Amazon, my new best friend.” Those words were spoken by Jeffrey Tambor on Sunday after he took home the best actor award at the Golden Globes for “Transparent,” a…
Retailers offer President help with the State of Union speech
President Obama and his staff are no doubt preparing for next week’s State of the Union speech with all the seriousness required of such an event. The National Retail Federation…
NRF to retail nation: R-E-L-A-X
Earlier this year after the Green Bay Packers got off to a 1-2 start to the season, the team’s quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, went on the radio to tell Packer fans…
Is seasonal hiring just a cheap date?
The economy is said to be improving, with more people having more money to spend and more retailers needing more staff to both sell and fulfill orders. With more jobs…
NRF attendees feeling really good about 2015
As in years past, RetailWire was at the Javits Center to gauge, in our own anecdotal and unscientific fashion, the mood of the industry compared to previous years. We discovered…
Mobile’s influence on physical is growing
A recent survey by Deloitte of 2,000 customers found smartphones influencing 19 percent of sales at physical stores, up from only five percent in 2012. At the session entitled, “The…
Customers have the best ideas
At the NRF Big Show, Terry Jones, the founder of Travelocity.com and founding chairman of Kayak.com, said the best ideas come from customers and those who work most closely with…
Robots are ready for retail. Is retail ready for robots?
Let’s kick the New Year off with a futuristic topic. What’s more futuristic than robots? Lowe’s hit the news back in October with their robot sales assistant. Similarly, an Aloft…
Does health & wellness have another gear?
At a session at NRF’s Big Show on Sunday, execs at three retailers—CVS, REI and Giant Eagle—explored the extensive reach of health & wellness across retail categories and its expanding…
Bold predictions for grocery products in 2015
Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert, working closely with ConAgra Foods, predicted the most significant changes in 2015 in the food world will stem from a desire for bold-flavored foods that also…
NRF: Tech that capitalizes on physical retail’s strengths
At a keynote session Sunday at the NRF Big Show, Bill Simon, former president and CEO, Walmart U.S., said he believes pure e-commerce plays are “starting to see a peak.”…
Retail cyber threat: better and worse
One thing you can say about the cyber threat to retail — it is constantly changing. According to a new report by IBM, the threat is getting weaker and stronger…
Toys ‘R’ Us has another bad Christmas
In 2013, Toys “R” Us went heavy on the promotions during the Christmas holiday season, yet the chain’s quarterly comps fell 4.7 percent in the U.S. This past holiday season,…
Is online selling gaining more momentum?
E-commerce by all indications delivered another strong holiday selling season in 2014, marked by solid double-digit growth. At the same time, a new report shows brick & mortar suffered a…
Wet Seal’s future is online
Wet Seal, a California based fashion retailer catering to young women 18 to 24, is shuttering 338 of its 500+ stores and laying off 3,700 employees. But all the news…
Office Depot wants to redefine the office supply business
Office supplies are not cool. Gear, on the other hand, is — and new commercials produced as part of the first branding campaign for the merged Office Depot/OfficeMax are emphasizing…
Let’s make a (private equity) deal!
BC Partners’ $8.6 billion deal last month to acquire PetSmart has created a speculation boom regarding which retailer will be the next target of a leveraged buyout. According to Reuters,…
It’s good to be an Amazon Marketplace seller
Despite concerns raised about Amazon possibly using data from third-party sellers on its Marketplace to benefit itself at the expense of those smaller companies, third-party sellers set a record selling…
Nearly 70 percent to own in-home IoT device by 2019
With many such items hyped at the Consumer Electronics Show that wraps up Friday in Las Vegas, Acquity Group recently issued a report predicting that 69 percent of consumers plan…
