Apparel

New York -- Bealls Inc., the 100-year-old Florida-based department store retailer, is developing a specialty store concept, called Bunulu, which will debut by the end of 2015.

The new banner, which already has its own website, Bunulu.com, will target a younger demographic, and feature coastal-inspired active lifestyle apparel and accessories for both men and women. National brands will be featured.

New York -- Dolce & Gabbana will open a flagship store in the 15,000-sq.-ft. 155 Mercer Street building in the SoHo area of New York City.

Thor Equities leased the entire building to the Italian luxury fashion house, which plans to re-create the original brownstone façade.

Originally built in 1855 as Firemen’s Hall, the historical property was most recently home to dance performance venue the Joyce Theater. The four-level building includes 50 ft. of frontage on Mercer Street.
 

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.

Reston, Va. - Online shoppers around the world want the ability to search and shop on multiple channels and devices, expect to see alternate delivery and payment options, and when it comes to shipping and returns, “free” is a driving factor to complete the sale. According to the second UPS Pulse of the Online Study conducted with comScore Inc., American online shoppers are open to new trends on social media and in-store technologies, making more purchases on tablets than any other market.

Stage Stores' approach to operating department stores in small to mid-sized towns enabled the company to grow holiday season sales and profits faster than some of its big city rivals.

The company’s 853 departments stores, operating under the banners of Bealls, Goody’s, Palais Royal, Peebles and Stage, grew sales 6.6% to $525 million and profits from continuing operations increased 35% to $43.7 million during the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31. Same store sales increased 6.4% and the company’s e-commerce business grew 30%.

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.

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.

Houston – A dropping cost of sales helped Stage Stores Inc. boost net income 76% to $43.72 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, up from $18.26 million the same quarter a year earlier. Net sales climbed 6% to $524.89 million from $492.54 million, and same-store sales rose 6.4%.

Stage Stores plans to close 10-20 stores and open two new stores during fiscal 2015.