Apparel

Visual search, or the ability to click on an image of a product and obtain information, or even make a purchase, without typing in any words, is growing in popularity.

Retailers including Urban Outfitters are offering variations of visual search functionality, and the failed Amazon Fire smartphone essentially made the world into an Amazon showroom with an advanced virtual search tool. Considering that Pinterest has become one of the leading visually-oriented consumer sites, it’s not surprising the social platform has joined the fray.

It would take a pretty big event to cause Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Off 5th, and Neiman Marcus to all align their online discount offers.

Singles Day, coming up on Nov. 11, is just that size of an event. Once an informal celebration of the Chinese singles dating scene, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba formally turned Singles Day into a shopping holiday in 2009. The occasion generated gross merchandise volume of more than $9.3 billion on the Alibaba Alipay mobile and digital payment platform alone in 2014.

Specialty fashion retailer Vanity is trying to make visiting its stores as rewarding an experience as possible.

Same-day delivery provider Deliv is strengthening its position in the important New York market.

Deliv has acquired Zipments, a New York-based same-day delivery company. This gives Deliv more of a foothold and delivery density in New York City, one of the largest markets for same-day delivery in the country.

Zipments services brands such as Trina Turk, on-demand companies such as Casper, Handy, and Plated, local merchants such as B&H, Murray's Cheese and Epicerie Boulud, as well as large corporate clients who need to send packages across town.

Dishonest employees and shoplifters pushed shrink rates to record levels and earned the United States the distinction of leading the world in the least desirable of retail metrics.

According to retailers surveyed for the Global Retail Theft Barometer, shrink rose in the U.S. from 1.28% of sales in 2013-2014 to 1.97% during 2014-2015. Globally, this compares to 1.42% , a figure also up from the previous .94% average of all common retailers surveyed the previous year.

Dunbar Commercial, a Henderson, Nevada-based commercial real estate brokerage firm, has secured a 10-year lease on behalf of Victoria’s Secret. Dunbar Commercial principal Bill Dunbar made the announcement.

The 7,852-sq.-ft. Victoria’s Secret opened Oct. 23 at The District at Green Valley Ranch in Henderson. Dunbar Commercial represented both the tenant and landlord in the transaction.

Paster Properties, a developer and manager of retail projects in Minnesota, and Bader Development, a multi-family property developer and manager, have partnered to develop a six-story, 155,000-sq.-ft., mixed-use redevelopment project in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Tommy Bahama brings its combination retail/restaurant concept to Honolulu, opening a 19,200-sq.-ft. flagship in the beachfront neighborhood of Waikiki.

The three-level space houses a ground-floor retail space, a second story restaurant, and a rooftop lounge complete with a patio featuring a sand floor and fire pits.

Uniquely Hawaiian details demonstrate authenticity throughout the space, which is open and airy has a traditional indoor/outdoor feeling.

Stein Mart reported negative same-store sales growth on the same day that the company also lost its chief merchant to an off-price rival.

For the third quarter ended Oct. 31, Stein Mart comps fell 2.3%.

"Unseasonably warm weather impacted traffic and our sales during the third quarter," said Jay Stein, CEO. "We continue to have a positive outlook on our important fourth quarter holiday sales which will include incremental sales from six new stores opened through the third quarter plus four more new stores opening in November."

Gap Inc. is reportedly steering its store networking strategy away from hardware such as switches and routers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Gap network architect Snehal Patel told attendees at a recent New York University networking conference that the retailer is transitioning its store network traffic to software-defined routers from Vipeta Inc. The new routers allow Gap to route traffic over the public Internet, maintaining security with encrypted connections.