Human Resources

Hudson, Ohio -- Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores has named a 25-year retailing veteran, former Shopko exec Jill Soltau, as president, CEO and a member of the board, effective March 2. She succeeds Jim Kerr, who has served as interim CEO since August when Travis Smith stepped down. Kerr will continue as executive VP and CFO.

Here are five retail trends to expect in 2015 — and the opportunity each trend presents — from the folks at T1Visions, a provider of interactive touch-screen technology.

1. Stores as Experiences = opportunity to create new ways to interact with product; focus on experience over the sale; customize the experience whenever and wherever possible.

Zulily achieved $1.2 billion in annual sales during 2014, but Wall Street was none too happy with that.

The flash-sale website operator expects first-quarter sales of $300 million to $320 million, compared with the $371 million estimate from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. For the full year, it expects $1.5 billion to $1.65 billion, compared with an analyst estimate of $1.75 billion.

DDR Corp.'s board of directors has promoted David Oakes to the chief executive officer post.

Oakes, the company's president and chief financial officer, fills a seat left empty by Daniel Hurwitz, who stepped down as CEO in December.

"After a thorough and robust search process, the board is confident that David is the right person to lead DDR into the future," Terry Ahern, the company's chairman, said. "I also want to thank the team for the terrific job that they have done while the board conducted the search process."

Dallas -- SRS Real Estate Partners has named Kevin Boyd as senior VP and co-market leader in the Chicago office. Experienced with local, regional, and national retailers, he will focus on tenant representation while jointly leading the Chicago team.

Mahwah, N.J. -- Ascena Retail Group has appointed Robb Giammatteo to serve as CFO. He joined Ascena in 2013, as senior VP of financial planning and analysis and investor relations.

New York -- Shipping operations will be suspended at U.S. West Coast ports over the coming long weekend, the Pacific Maritime Association announced Wednesday. The planned shut down comes amid  stalled labor talks between the companies and the union representing 20,000 dockworkers.

Scott Kessler has been named chief information officer at Belk less than a year after joining the regional department store operator as its top omnichannel executive.   Kessler, who will report to John R. Belk, president and chief operating officer, has served as Belk’s senior vice president of omnichannel solutions delivery since March of 2014.