Strategy

Canadian footwear and accessory retailer The Aldo Group is not ignoring the back end when it comes to supporting seamless commerce. Aldo is deploying the CGS BlueCherry B2B e-commerce solution to enable its buyers to select assortments and receive confirmed orders virtually anywhere and anytime. With more than 2,500 points of sale and nearly 2,000 retail stores across the globe, Aldo is always trying to better engage its large network of wholesale and franchisee retail buyers.

The likes of Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Best Buy have a new competitor to deal with—J.C. Penny. "The department store retailer on Monday announced a major expansion into home appliances, as well as two new tests in the home area, one involving Ashley Furniture, and the other national carpet and flooring company Empire Today.

Traditional supermarket retailers are facing competition on all fronts, from online pure players, discount grocery chains and from the extreme-value general merchandise retailers (dollar stores). While dollar stores remain a niche segment, consumables are becoming a more important part of the sector, according to a report on forbes.com.

Five retail chains rank among the top 10 brands doing a poor job when it comes to emotional engagement, a measure of how well brands meet consumer expectations, according to an annual survey.

A surprising decline in retail hiring helped trigger a weak employment report for April.

Job growth in April slowed sharply to a seven-month low. The report gave back growth seen earlier in the year, and the retail industry — excluding automobiles, gasoline and restaurants — showed a decline of 4,900 jobs, the National Retail Federation reported.

Michaels Companies will unveil a 26,500-sq.-ft. Pat Catan’s Crafts and Floral store on May 13 – the first opening since Michaels acquired Pat Catan’s parent company earlier this year.

Birchbox has added two new executives to enhance the customer experience, hiring VPs in product management and creative.

Terre Layton was named global VP of product management and user experience, responsible for global product management, the product strategy and roadmap, and the user experience. She most recently worked at Sephora, where she served as head of front-end product management and led strategic digital innovation projects. She has also consulted for several beauty retailers and e-commerce companies.

Everyone is talking about the huge impact millennials are having on retail. Also known as Gen Y, they are usually considered to occupy the 18-to-35 age demographic. But what about Gen Z, the younger siblings (or even children) of millennials?
 
Based on what we’ve seen so far, here are three ways Gen Z will change retail in the next few years.
 
Video Killed the Retail Star