Retail

Retailers often use in-store beacons to push promotions to customer mobile phones as they pass by. But video game retailer GameStop Corp., which operates more than 4,200 U.S. stores, takes a different approach.

“In the store, we have multiple pieces signage marking the location of beacons,” said Charlie Larkin, senior director of GameStop Technology Institute, the retailer’s in-house IT development center. “There are seven to 14 beacons across different zones of the store, depending on store size.”

Franklin, Tenn. – The boring old POS terminal may not be so boring after all. According to new research from IHL Group, North American POS shipments grew by 5.2% year-over-year in 2014, a time when many were calling for a reduction in shipments due to mobile.  

For Los Angeles-based fashion retailer Forever 21, the journey from a single location on Figueroa Street in L.A. in 1984 to more than 680 global locations today has been transformative. Over the last three decades, the brand has not shied away from innovation and experimentation, implementing a range of different store sizes and concepts along the way: from smaller 5,000-sq.-ft. layouts in its early years, to larger 9,000-sq.-ft. concepts in the 2000s and a range of big-box stores that range up to 40,000 sq. ft.

Goleta, Calif. - Deckers Brands is rolling out the company's first multi-brand e-commerce platform in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, Style X Deckers. The service, which has more than 100 SKUs of products from UGG, Teva, Sanuk and Hoka One One is expected to launch in five APAC countries during the first half of 2015.

New York -- Retailers who take a holistic approach to measuring the benefits of new store designs are most successful in accurately quantifying the bottom-line results, according to new research from EWI Worldwide and A.R.E. (the Association for Retail Environments).

Waban, Mass. – Publix, Aldi and H-E-B share something besides all operating in the grocery sector. Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, the three supermarket chains earned the highest scores in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks 293 companies across 20 industries.

Joining those firms in the top 12 spots are retailers Chick-fil-A, PetSmart, Amazon.com, Trader Joe's, Papa John's, Walgreens, and Hannaford's.

Los Angeles - StepsAway is expanding the footprint of its mobile in-store deal app with Starwood Retail Partners. The agreement will expand StepsAway’s multi-state footprint, bringing its mobile retail solution to 10 Starwood properties across the US.

Minneapolis – Christopher Askew, president of Best Buy services, is reportedly leaving the company. According to the Wall Street Journal, Askew is leaving his post overseeing Best Buy’s Geek Squad technology services offering less than two years after he was hired from NCR Corp.

An internal company memo indicates CEO Hubert Joly will oversee the services organization on an interim basis. Best Buy confirmed the memo. The retailer has been expanding its showroom floor space as services sales have been declining.