Strategy

While technology and innovation flourish on the consumer side of fashion, inside retail headquarters, merchants and planners still rely on reports and tools that have barely evolved from the three-ring binders and green screens of the 1970s. Merchants and planners, many of whom grew up as digital natives, navigate an awkward time warp: They commute from the consumer world to offices that stifle their skills in interpreting and acting on visual, interactive data and tools.

Woonsocket, R.I., and Minneapolis —Target plans to sell its pharmacy business to CVS Health for $1.9 billion and rebrand its nearly 1,700 prescription departments as CVS/pharmacy in a blockbuster deal that stunned the healthcare world.

A nine month search is over for automotive retailer Pep Boys who turned to rental car giant Hertz for a new CEO to lead the 800 unit parts and service chain.

Pep Boy had been looking for a new CEO since last September when former CEO Mike Odell stepped down after seven years with the company and longtime board member John Sweetwood was tapped to fill the CEO position on an interim basis.

As retailers race to make their gift registry services more interactive, Belk is launching a new wedding registry app.

In addition to in-store kiosks, registrants can now set up a registry, manage their registry and scan items using their smartphones.

The app features tips on what to register for and a registry checklist to make sure no items are missed. Any time a registrant is in the store and sees a new item they would like to add, they can scan from their smart phone to immediately add the item to their registry.

Lumber Liquidators former chief merchandising officer William Schlegel is the latest casualty of an ongoing management overhaul by company founder and Chairman Tom Sullivan that also claimed the jobs of the CEO and CFO.

Sullivan continues to clean house at the company he founded 20 years ago after a damning report by 60 Minutes raised concerns about the company’s product sourcing practices and allegations of circumventing federal laws.

As more brands evolve to a direct-to-consumer model, Unilever is expanding its direct selling to China by launching a flagship store on JD.com.

The Unilever flagship store on JD Worldwide, which is JD.com's cross-border e-commerce platform, will feature products from a range of Unilever’s most popular global brands such as Ponds, Dove and Vaseline. Notably, the flagship store will make available three product lines from Lux's shampoo range, which are currently the best-selling shampoo products in the Japanese market.

Target’s annual meeting was pretty much a non-event on June 10, aside from the fact that a corporate structure in which Brian Cornell serves as both chairman and CEO doesn’t sit well with many shareholders. 

U.S. consumers have more options for grocery shopping than ever before. But German discount grocer Lidl, aiming to emulate the U.S. success of the growing Aldi chain, says it will “create a unique experience for American consumers that will be unlike anything else in the market.”

Off-price retailer Ollie’s quietly doubled in size the past few years and now the company plans to go public, accelerating growth of no-frills stores it affectionately refers to as “semi-lovely” warehouses.

Ollie’s operates 181 stores in the Eastern U.S. that last year generated annual sales $638 million and net income of $26.9 million.

Target chairman and CEO Brian Cornell commented on the chain’s new partnership with CVS Health in a Q&A on Target’s blog, A Bullseye View. Here are some excerpts: