Marketing Tactics

Gap plans to expand the training program it offers to its women garment workers oversees, aiming to educate at least 1 million women by 2020.

The program, called P.A.C.E. (Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement), launched in 2007 and gives women garment workers access to a curriculum up to 80 hours long in up to nine areas, from communications skills, financial literacy, stress management, problem-solving and decision-making.

Proponents of the motto “image is everything” will be pleased with a new partnership eBay Enterprise is launching. The online retail platform is teaming up with visual commerce platform Curalate to give publishers the ability to drive traffic and revenue from images sourced from Instagram.

The partnership offers Curalate Like2Buy, which allows users to directly click to purchases from Instagram images, to more than 100,000 publishers in the eBay Enterprise Affiliate Network.

A strong roster of rock icons is coming to Lucky Brand stores and wholesale customers thanks to a licensing deal with Epic Rights.

Lucky Brand will create a new line of tops and headwear that feature artists represented by Epic Rights including KISS, Journey, Def Leppard, Billy Idol, The Doobie Brothers, Jefferson Airplane and CBGB.  The apparel will be sold exclusively at Lucky Brand retail and wholesale locations nationwide and online beginning in spring 2016.

Whole Foods Market says it is slashing more than 1% of its workforce in an effort to lower prices for its customers and invest in technology upgrades, as the company fights against increasing competition in the organic grocery space.

With nearly 1,100 stores in malls nationwide, it appears that 2015 was not the summer of the sneaker for Finish Line.

The retailer reported weaker-than-expected sales for its second quarter ended Aug. 29. The results weren’t awful, with sales advancing 3.5% to $483.2 million and same-store sales up 1.5%. However, gas prices were in free fall for much of the year and the unemployment rate was in decline, which should have left Finish Line’s core customer with money in their pockets and no reason to not drive to the mall.

Teen apparel retailer Hollister will remove the steps from its store entrances following a six-year court battle.

The company, owned by Abercrombie & Fitch Co., has agreed to eliminate the steps that part of the exterior design of many of its stores in order to make the doorways wheelchair accessible, the Associated Press reported. The change is part of a settlement approved by a federal judge.

A new marketplace has launched with the goal of helping retailers and suppliers keep up with the blistering pace of innovation that is transforming their world.