Research Topic

Lane Bryant is launching a new marketing campaign aimed at women who love the skin they're in and are confident with the bodies they have.

Lane Bryant's new This Body campaign serves as a declaration and an invitation to let the world understand how this plus size woman feels about her body. The idealized smaller size body type, which is constantly referenced as the norm in the media, is simply not realistic for the vast majority of female consumers, Lane Bryant says.

Some of the biggest names in e-commerce are part of a new investor index designed to track the performance of the online retail market.

San Diego-based EQM Indexes LLC, created the index (ticker symbol: IBUYXT) to track the combined performance of 40 to 50 global stocks that derive at least 70% of their revenue from online retail and virtual commerce including the online retail, online marketplace and online travel market segments. The companies that make up the index can be seen here.

Los Angeles -- CBRE Group announced that Melina Cordero, a retail analyst, consultant and researcher has joined the company as head of retail research, the Americas. Cordero will work closely with CBRE Retail business-line leaders and professionals to generate innovative, in-depth research and analysis to inform CBRE clients about the ever-changing retail and shopping center industries.

A new study of the retail habits of Generations Y and Z shows that the different age groups differ when it comes to using computers for online purchases versus shopping at brick-and-mortar stores.

A new GfK survey revelaled that Baby Boomers have been slower to adopt the smartphone as a shopping device. But when it comes to making purchases with a desktop or laptop computer, Boomers registered similar levels to Generation Y (40% and 43% respectively), while Gen Z came in at just 32%.

A new study of the retail habits of Generations Y and Z shows that the different age groups differ when it comes to using computers for online purchases versus shopping at brick-and-mortar stores.

A new GfK survey revelaled that Baby Boomers have been slower to adopt the smartphone as a shopping device. But when it comes to making purchases with a desktop or laptop computer, Boomers registered similar levels to Generation Y (40% and 43% respectively), while Gen Z came in at just 32%.

Stores that double as classrooms, sensory-rich environments and a rental versus a buy retail model. These are three of the five trends that shopping center developer Westfield believes will shape the future of retailing.

The trends are highlighted in a new report from Westfield, "How We Shop Now: What's Next?," for which the developer interviewed 13,000 shoppers across the United States and United Kingdom along with leading industry experts and trend-spotters.

The five key trends are:

Retailers may find themselves banished to the Island of the Misfit Toys if they do not improve their handling of returned holiday purchases.

According to new data from Kurt Salmon, it took an average of 13.3 days for retailers to credit returns to accounts during the 2015 holiday season. This marked an improvement from the prior year’s 16.8 days, but still far from customers’ expectation of about seven days.

For all their talk about the customer, most retailers have yet to evolve to a business model that is truly customer-centric.

That’s the conclusion of a new industry study by strategic consulting firm The O Alliance that was created in partnership with Revmetri.