Corporate Governance

GameStop forecast an exceptionally wide range of same store sales possibilities during the fourth quarter following weaker than expected third quarter results.

The recent KronosWorks 2015 conference was held in Las Vegas, a city built on taking chances. However, increasing automation of workforce management tasks is helping retailers remove the risk from activities such as scheduling, staffing and hiring.

Here are three hot automation trends highlighted at KronosWorks that are helping retailers win the workforce management game.

Holiday is going to have a new look this year, as retailers take a different approach to the shopping season. As a result of consumers’ overwhelming focus on price, online shopping and free shipping incentives, retailers have been forced to rethink their strategies. As part of our ongoing series of retail industry surveys, HRC Advisory recently spoke with over a dozen top U.S. retailers to gauge what’s to come for the 2015 holiday season.

John Bultema, executive VP, treasury management and currency processing solutions for Fifth Third Bank, spoke with Chain Store Age editor Marianne WIlson about the current status of cash receipts in retail store. And how they aren’t going away anytime soon.

REI's plea asking shoppers to skip Black Friday and go outside has prompted nearly 1 million endorsements for the retailer's #OptOutside social media campaign.

The Seattle-based retailer announced Monday that more than 150 other companies, nonprofit organizations and agencies that support state and national parks are also encouraging people to spend Black Friday outside. As Thanksgiving approaches, REI says it plans to recognize the hundreds of thousands of people and partner organizations that are opting to enjoy the outdoors with friends and family.

A familiar name factors heavily into the online holiday shopping plans of consumers.

According to a new poll from Reuters and Ipsos, 51% of consumers plan to do most or all of their online holiday shopping at Amazon.com. This dwarfs the next-most-popular specific retailer, Walmart, favored by 16%.

Other traditional and online retailers combined for the second-highest response of 18%. Other popular retailers with low responses include Target (3%) and Macys (2%).

Francesca's has lost its chief financial adviser just weeks after naming a new head merchant and a new senior marketing executive.

The Texas-based company announced that CFO Mark Vendetti has resigned from the company effective Dec. 4. Cindy Thomassee, Francesca's current VP of accounting, has been appointed to the role of interim CFO and will report directly to CEO Michael W. Barnes while the company conducts a search for a CFO.

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It appears that Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is starting to making progress in its turnaround efforts.

Helped by a less promotional stance and cost cuts, the teen retailer saw its profit more than double in its third quarter as it beat expectations. But similar to many other retailers, Abercrombie struck a cautious note and said it expects fourth-quarter same-store sales to be about flat.

Destination XL says it is on pace to open its 175th store next year as the big and tall retailer also posted a jump in same-store sales and filled a newly created position with a veteran from Genesco.

For the third quarter ended Oct. 31, same store sales at the company increased 4.3%. Destination XL also narrowed its loss to $5.47 million, or 11 cents a share. In the previous year period, the company reported a loss of $6.28 million, or 13 cents a share.