Apparel

Canadian footwear and accessory retailer The Aldo Group is streamlining e-commerce operations to better satisfy customers and ease international expansion.

Aldo’s previous e-commerce site had issues including inventory inaccuracy, a lack of flexibility and poor performance during high traffic periods. The retailer has overhauled its e-commerce architecture using the SAP Hybris Commerce solution as a new platform.

While teen apparel retailers are feeling the heat from online and fast-fashion competitors, Five Below continues to move across the country.

The extreme-value brand for and pre-teens and teens will open its first store in Wisconsin, in Racine, on May 6, 2016.The Racine store is one of approximately 85 new Five Below locations opening in 2016, on top of 71 new stores that opened in 2015.

Aeropostale will reportedly file for bankruptcy protection this week and subsequently close more than 100 of its 800 stores, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The struggling teen apparel retailer plans to reorganize under a Chapter 11 filing this week ahead of May rent payments, the report said. On Aeropostale has been struggling for some time. The chain has recorded three consecutive years of losses as its struggles to deal with a teen audience whose spending tastes now favor fast-fashion giants such as H&M as well as online retailers.

Online sales and returns are taking toll on retailers’ bottom lines.

Operating earnings as a percent of sales has declined by up to 25% due to a shift from in-store to online sales, combined with e-commerce and omnichannel investments and the high cost of fulfilling e-commerce transactions, according to a study by strategic retail advisory firm HRC Advisory.

Retailers who fail to maintain a clean, well-maintained store are putting themselves at a strong competitive disadvantage.

That’s the takeaway from a new survey conducted by Harris Poll for the Cintas Corp., which found that 93% of U.S. adults would not return to a retailer if they experienced some type of issue related to the facility. The top five factors that would turn patrons away from a store were:

• General bad odor – 78%
• Dirty restrooms (e.g., floors, stalls, mirrors, odor) – 66%

Sears Holdings has been having issues attracting shoppers to stores, as evidenced by the recent decision to close 78 brick-and-mortar locations.

However, the department store retailer is not giving up on efforts to drive store traffic. Sears is combining the eternal appeal of Mom and its strong history of omnichannel customer service to give shoppers a good reason to visit their local store.

Academy Sports + Outdoors named Thomas "Tom" Lamb executive VP, chief marketing officer, effective May 23.

Tom, 50, joins Academy after 17 years with Lowe's Companies, where he most recently served as chief marketing officer. At Lowe's he led the marketing, advertising, brand management, private brand development, customer relationship management, and digital communication activities for the $59 billion retailer.

True Religion Apparel Inc. is enabling store associates to provide a highly personalized customer experience with a glance at their watch.

The specialty apparel retailer is partnering with Aptos Inc. (formerly Epicor Retail) and Formula 3 Group to enhance and extend the functionality of its associate-facing Apple Watch “Band” app. Originally released in December 2015, Band offers real-time access to the retailer’s full inventory selection from the store, along with intuitive search capability.