Transform SR Brands LLC

Specialty apparel retailer Body Central has transformed its merchandising organization with four high level hires and the departure of former chief merchant Beth Angelo.

Bloomfield Hills, Mich. -- Taubman Centers, owner of Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, Mich., said Friday that The Cheesecake Factory will make a Michigan debut with a new restaurant opening at Twelve Oaks.

The 8,430-sq.-ft. Cheesecake Factory will open in latter 2013, and will feature French limestone floors, decorative columns, hand-painted murals and contemporary lighting.

Twelve Oaks Mall is anchored by Nordstrom, Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, J.C. Penney, Sears and the Lifestyle Café Food Court.
 

SEATTLE — Sears' online marketplace will be the subject of a webinar on Feb. 26 hosted by Mercent, a technology company that enables retailers to profitably reach and convert more shoppers online.

Titled "Selling on Sears.com - Your Access to more than 15 Million Loyal Shoppers," the webinar will discuss Sears.com's role as the third largest online marketplace and how its expanding its reach and visibility against Amazon.com, eBay and Google.

The year started on a positive note with increases in both number of flyers and pages released to market. More than half of the retailers (56%) maintained previous levels or showed an increase in size of their circulars in January 2013. In addition, the number of inserts per market also showed an increase with almost half (44%) of the advertisers showing a rise in flyer drops for this month. Overall, the number of pages increased slightly (+3.1%), and the number of flyers rose (+8.4%) compared to last year.

Traffic trends at Walmart and other major retailers declined in December even though e-commerce sales set new records in the fourth quarter and throughout 2012.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears is headed to the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival this month to showcase its new lines of outdoor living furniture, patio sets and Kenmore grills.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Kmart has partnered with Essence Magazine's finance expert, Tanisha Sykes, for the sixth-annual Share the Word campaign to provide financial empowerment to African-Americans.

"Financial empowerment is extremely important within the African-American community," Sykes said. "This year's Share the Word campaign will provide the tools, information and resources to help pave the road to financial success."

San Francisco -- ECOtality said Tuesday that it has expanded its current relationship with Sears Holdings Corp. by unveiling the Blink Direct Current Fast Charger stations at Sears stores in Tennessee and Arizona.

The stations enable Sears customers to charge an electric vehicle battery up to 80% capacity in less than 30 minutes.