Retail

Skechers USA’s recently remodeled East Coast flagship store on 42nd St. in Manhattan’s Times Square has incorporated five outdoor LED displays and three static displays to make its own statement on one of the world’s most visually noisy stages.

NEW YORK — Gilt.com has launched a free rewards program called Gilt Insider Program, which will offer Gilt members opportunities to score points redeemable for a variety of benefits.

Members can earn points simply for interacting with the site, and can then redeem them to shop sales early, earn access to discounts, get free shipping and attend exclusive events.

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. — Topco Associates has appointed Danell O’Neill as the company's director of corporate communications. She will report directly to president and CEO Randy Skoda.

Tel Aviv, Israel – Preen.Me, a social platform for beauty consumers that offers access to personalized product recommendations, peer-to-peer recommendations, product reviews and how-to tutorials, is launching a database for select beauty brand partners.

The database will provide brands with aggregated consumer information such as actual product usage, and price sensitivity. Brand partners will also have direct access to Preen.Me users.

Toronto – Shoppers Drug Mart enjoyed a successful second quarter of fiscal 2013, reporting increases in net earnings, sales and same-store sales. Net earnings totaled up $141.8 million USD, up about 1% from $139.9 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Sales were about $2.45 billion, a 3.3% boost from the previous year. Same-store sales rose 2% during the quarter.

Pet retailers will head to the SuperZoo Pet Products Expo in Las Vegas next week, looking for innovations to grow sales, and one potential big-ticket item is the Summer Splash, from the Ultimate Dog Pool, a new supplier of inflatable pools for dogs.

The inflatable dog pool designed for medium to large size dogs will be on display at booth #4470 July 23-25, seeking distribution opportunities at the expo.

New York – U.S. consumers spent more last month as real home prices and initial unemployment claims continued to improve. The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index for June 2013, which comprises four components of tax burden, initial unemployment claims, real wages and real home prices, increased to 4.3 from a reading of 4.2 the previous month.   
Following is a summary of the four main components of the Index:

Tax Burden: The tax rate is up from last year, and is now at 12%.

J.C. Penney is counting on a familiar blend of promotional tactics for the 2013 back-to-school season after a slate of merchandising initiatives and a free haircut offer ended horribly last year.

The department store retailer is touting the availability of some familiar brands and promotional pricing along with a new Joe Fresh Kids brand, expanded Levi’s assortments, free customization kits with the purchase of backpacks and shoes during August and dedicated landing pages at Jcp.com for key brands such as Arizona, Levi’s and Total Girl.