Retail

Boston – The in-store customer experience is going to get a lot more personalized and timely. According to a new special report by Boston Retail Partners (BRP), “Real-time Retail – The New Retail Imperative,” by 2020 nearly two-thirds of retailers will identify a customer when they walk in the store via their smartphone.  In addition, 76% of retailers plan to provide suggested selling based on a customer’s previous purchases within three years.

Other key findings gathered from recent BRP surveys include:

Menomonee Falls, Wis. — Kohl’s on Thursday announced a series of organizational changes, including the promotion of Michelle Gass to the newly created principal officer position of chief merchandising and customer officer. Gass joined Kohl’s in 2013 as chief customer officer from Starbucks, where she is credited with playing a key role in the coffee giant’s turnaround  several years back.    

Restoration Hardware earnings surged in the first quarter on strong sales, giving a boost to the company as it embarks on expanding its business with new stores with larger showrooms.

For the first quarter ended May 2, Restoration Hardware reported a profit of $7.2 million, or 17 cents a share, up from $1.8 million, or four cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding tax impacts, a prior-year litigation claim and other items, per-share earnings rose to 23 cents from 18 cents. Revenue increased 15% to $422.4 million.

New York — Online traffic rose 18% in the first quarter, according to Demandware's latest  Shopping Index. The study also reveals that the duration of mobile shopping visits decreased 43% in the first quarter, down to 8.4 minutes. Overall shopping episodes were also down 31% to 8.9 minutes.  

Batteries Plus Bulbs is upgrading its payment terminals and software to prepare for the EMV liability shift at its 650 U.S. locations.

The retailer says it has chosen the Ingenico Group's solution, which enables Batteries Plus Bulbs stores to securely accept magstripe debit and credit payment cards, and positions the stores to accept virtually any form of payment including EMV chip & sign, EMV chip & pin, contactless/NFC and other types of mobile wallets in the future.

Batavia, Ill. — Discount grocery powerhouse Aldi announced plans enter the nation’s most populous state, opening approximately 25 stores in Southern California by July 2016.      The chain’s expansion to California is an integral part of a five-year strategic plan to open 650 new stores across the nation. By the end of 2018, Aldi expects to operate nearly 2,000 stores.   

Kohl’s Corp. has appointed an ex-Starbucks executive as its next chief merchandising and customer officer.

The retailer announced that Michelle Gass has been appointed to the newly created principal officer position of CMCO. In this new capacity, Gass has assumed oversight of all of Kohl's merchandising, planning and allocation, and product development functions. She will continue to report to Kevin Mansell, Kohl’s chairman, chief executive officer and president.

Scottsdale, Ariz. – JDA Software Group will release its next generation of cloud-based omnichannel and supply chain solutions on the public Google Cloud Platform. Through this collaboration, Google will provide a scalable and flexible technology platform via the cloud to support JDA’s future application development and delivery.