Marketing Tactics

New York -- Merchandise misfires are the bane of specialty apparel retailers. Most recently, Anthropologie, a division of Urban Outfitters, missed big time with its spring collection of cocktail dresses and maxis, which customers apparently found too pricey and/or not to their liking.

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San Francisco – Williams-Sonoma Inc. exceeded Wall Street expectations with earnings and sales in the fiscal 2015 first quarter. From the same period the previous year, net income declined 3% to $44.79 million from $46.16 million.

Increases in cost of goods sold and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses helped reduce net income. Net revenues rose 6% to $1.03 billion from $973.33 million. The West Elm banner had particularly strong sales growth.

Shanghai -- Disney Store has opened its first store — and largest store to date — in Shanghai, China. With 9,257 sq. ft. of shopping space, the flagship also features an outdoor plaza.

The store has numerous design features unique to Shanghai, which include:

• A Disney Magic Kingdom Castle, measuring 19 ft. high at the heart of the store, featuring an hourly musical and projection show;

Commerce, Calif. -- Smart & Final launched a new branding campaign, which will place the ampersand ("&") -- already in the 144-year old company's name -- front and center to showcase the company's relationship with both its customers and the communities it serves.

Smart & Final is launching a new marketing blitz that puts its use of punctuation front and center.

The rollout will include print, radio, television and outdoor advertising in select markets and digital outreach now through July 3. The new campaign aims to tell the story of what the value-oriented food and staples retailer has become through its growth initiatives and will highlight the company's heritage.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Domino's Pizza is debuting a new ordering option that combines two new-to-the-world innovations — ordering via tweet and ordering via emoji, specifically the pizza emoji. The ordering platforms launched on Wednesday throughout the United States.

Domino's is the first brand to use an emoji on Twitter to place and complete an order.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart announced the next step in its Veterans Welcome Home Commitment by guaranteeing a job offer to any eligible U.S. veteran honorably discharged from active duty since the commitment’s original launch on Memorial Day 2013.

The previous commitment was for veterans within 12 months off active duty. In addition to the Veterans Welcome Home Commitment, Walmart is expanding its 2013 projection of hiring 100,000 veterans by 2018, increasing the projection to 250,000 veterans by the end of 2020.

Walmart is more than doubling the number of veterans it plans to hire by the year 2020.