Apparel

Chief executives from leading retail real estate companies shed light on the new year’s most pressing challenges for their tenants

Trending Stores:

Nike SoHo introduces immersive product trial experiences, 54-ft. footwear wall

Nike has seen the future of retail — and it’s immersive and digitally connected.

The athletic giant has opened a five-level, multi-sport category outpost in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood that pushes the envelope of sports retailing.

BCBG Max Azria Group leveraged analytics when it realized its static “one-size-fits-all” e-commerce site didn’t optimize the overall shopping experience, or allow it to engage with specific omnichannel shoppers.

With a goal of personalizing the digital experience, and integrating its omnichannel journey as a whole, the women’s fashion brand added an analytics tool from Qubit. By embedding the platform’s JavaScript tags within its web pages, the technology transparently records all customer online interactions, pulling information into the cloud for reporting.

Online apparel-rental company Rent the Runway continues its brick-and-mortar expansion with the opening of its biggest store to date, a tech-savvy, 4,000-sq.-ft. flagship in Manhattan.

The stylish space merges the retailer’s digital assets with physical elements to create a very personalized customer experience, one based on each customer’s unique needs and past interactions with the brand.

The past year brought with it a changing of the guard, as many companies named new leaders to steer their ships in a transformed marketplace. Here are six newly arrived — or soon to arrive — CEOs to keep an eye on in 2017:

Jeff Gennette, Macy’s: A 33-year company veteran who came up through the ranks, Gennette takes the reins from longtime CEO Terry Lundgren in the first quarter of this year.