Apparel

The narrative is well established: Online sales are rising dramatically and having a major impact on brick-and-mortar retailers. The facts, however, are not quite so cut and dried. Internet sales still account for a remarkably small overall percentage of U.S. retail sales. A quarter century after Amazon’s first shipment was mailed, the Web accounts for less than 9% of U.S. retail sales. With sales of $500 billion, Walmart alone is the equivalent of six Amazons.  

Hudson’s Bay Company plans to open Canada’s largest Saks Fifth Avenue store, in downtown Montreal.    Scheduled to open in fall 2018, the store will be co-located in the same building as Hudson’s Bay, which will undergo a multi-million dollar renovation. The new Saks will take up approximately 200,000 sq. ft. of the existing 650,000-sq.-ft. space.   

Mirror, mirror in her hand, is Rebecca Minkoff one of the most innovative retailers in the land?   The specialty retailer is inching closer to this title as it brings its store-level smart mirror experience into its shoppers hands through a new app. Specifically, the app from Zeekit allows consumers to virtually “try on” fashions before buying online or trying them on in-store.  

Magnolia Bakery, the Greenwich Village shop that ignited the cupcake craze with its appearance on "Sex in the City," opens this week at Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in Central Valley, New York.   This is the first storefront for Magnolia on the East Coast, aside from its original location. It maintains shops in Los Angeles, Chicago, Honolulu, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates.  

Omnichannel success depends on the ability to scale operations to keep up with consumer demand.  

Francesca's Holdings Corp. has found a chief executive.   The retailer appointed Steven P. Lawrence, who currently serves as chief merchandising officer for Stage Stores, as president and CEO. Lawrence, who was also appointed to the company’s board, will officially join Francesca’s in October 2016.   Lawrence replaces Richard Kunes, who has been serving as Francesca’s interim chairman, president and CEO since May 2016. Kunes will become the company’s chairman of the board.

Helzberg Diamonds is committed to “making people feel loved.”   By adopting a set of multichannel customer experience management solutions, the jeweler is taking the next step to “wowwing” its shoppers with more personalized customer service cross-channel.   

Von Maur is slowly expanding its Dry Goods women’s specialty store format.   The retailer has opened a 4,000-sq.-ft. store at Woodland Mall. Since launching in 2010, Dry Goods has grown to 19 locations across six states.   Dry Good’s name and  store design were inspired by Von Maur's heritage as a dry goods store, dating back to 1872 in downtown Davenport, Iowa.    

Macy’s is the latest retailer to announce it will hire roughly the same amount of holiday employees as last year.    This holiday season, the department store giant plans to hire approximately 83,000 associates for positions across its Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores, call centers, distribution centers and online fulfillment centers nationwide.   

Not all department stores are scaling back on their portfolio.    Von Maur Department Stores has opened its third location in the state of Georgia, a 165,000-sq.-ft. store at the Mall of Georgia in Buford.