Corporate Governance

HSN is leveraging the 30-year career of designer Sigrid Olsen to launch a multi-platform marketing campaign.

The retailer is producing a show on HSN with Olsen that premieres this month to coincide with the debut of the Spring 2015 collection of her first women's fashion line since 2008. The show is just one facet of a campaign on social media, mobile and online.

TargetExpress, the retailer’s newest and smallest format store yet, is now open in San Francisco and Berkeley and designed with local city dwellers in mind.

The 12,000-square-foot Berkeley store, a former Walgreens, and the San Francisco location, 18,000 square feet and housed on Bush Street in the financial district, feature a refined and modern concept. With an edgy design, high ceilings and commissioned artwork and custom graphics, MBH architects created a shopping environment that will attract loyal Target customers and on-the-go millennials.

Sam’s Club has strengthened the value proposition of its membership offering with a new range of high value services designed to differentiate it from Costco while fending off competition from well-capitalized online startup Jet.com.

Los Angeles -- Frederick's of Hollywood Group filed Chapter 11 after earlier closing all of its 94 remailing stores and entering into an agreement to sell its online business, inventory and intellectual property to Authentic Brands Group LLC for a reported $22.5 million.

Founded in 1947, the privately held retailer of sexy lingerie cited competition (it faced an especially formidable rival in Victoria’s Secret), decreased mall traffic and leases in its filing. It listed $36.5 million in assets and $106 million in debt.

Irvine, Calif. -- Tilly’s announced today that CFO Jennifer Ehrhardt intends to resign from Tilly’s to relocate closer to her family and pursue other professional interests. She will continue to serve in the role for an interim period expected to end in June 2015, and will help with the transition process.

New York – Retailers Amazon.com, HSN, Newegg, QVC and Zappos.com were among the 15 companies receiving the highest ratings in the 2015 Forrester Research Customer Experience Index. Forrester data indicates that improving the customer experience is a strategic priority for 73% of businesses, yet only 1% of companies deliver an excellent customer experience.

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is reportedly aiming squarely at improved customer personalization with several data analytics efforts. According to Minnesota Public Radio, Target executives recently told Wall Street analysts the company will build an internal data analysis center.

Cupertino, Calif. – Apple Inc. reportedly may launch its Apple Pay mobile payment service in Canada as soon as fall 2015. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is in negotiations with the six largest Canadian banks to roll out Apple Pay north of the border in November 2015.

New York -- Staples said it has named Peter J. Scala as executive VP, merchandising, effective immediately. Scala will report to Demos Parneros, president, North American stores and online, and will be a member of the company’s executive committee.

Most recently, Scala served as senior VP of merchandising, online marketplace, leading the rapid expansion of Staples’ product assortment to support small and mid-size business customers.

Jacksonville, Fla. – A majority of consumers are spending savings from lower fuel prices to buy groceries. According to the new “Why? Behind the Buy” report from Acosta Sales & Marketing, 72% of shoppers age 18-34 will spend fuel savings on groceries.

Almost all (95%) U.S. shoppers report buying household groceries at regular supermarkets in the past six months; followed by shopping at mass merchants (79%); warehouse/club stores (42%); dollar and drug stores (39%); convenience stores (25%); natural/organic grocers (21%).