Consumer Electronics

GameStop plans to offer customers more for their pre-owned video games with a new, streamlined trade-in program that will launch nationwide August 18.

The program will feature four price-points depending on whether a customer chooses cash or in-store credit for their items and whether they are a PowerUp Rewards Pro member.

For example, a customer who is a PowerUp Rewards Pro member who sells a game valued at $20 for credit could get $22, whereas a customer who sells that game for cash and who is not a PowerUp Rewards Pro member would get $16.

Southlake, Texas -- Retail Properties of America, Inc. announced that Columbia Sportswear's Performance Fishing Gear concept store, plus several additional retailers including Altar'd State (5,162 sq. ft.), Elaine Turner (2,066 sq. ft.), ME SPA – which replaces Coldwater Creek Spa – and J.Jill, have recently opened, or will be opening, at Southlake Town Square in Southlake, Texas.
 
Columbia Sportswear's PFG store, the first of its kind in Texas, will measure 3,456 sq. ft. and is slated to open in late November 2014.

Three executives were named to new roles at leading appliance and consumer electronics manufacturer Haier America.

Haier America, part of the $29 billion Haier Group, named Gina Copeland SVP of air quality, Sanjay Gupta VP of product platform development for major appliances and Paul Riley as VP of sales and marketing for major appliances.

By Carin van Vuuren, CMO, Usablenet

When it comes to retail, online and physical aren’t mutually exclusive entities. Yet, conversations in the industry today too often focus on online sales dominating brick-and-mortar shopping, rather than the benefits of bridging the two together.

By reframing the discussion away from an “either/or,” retailers can create an entirely new set of opportunities to aid in engaging with their valued customers.

Miami Beach, Fla. -- Terranova Corp. and Acadia Realty Trust have reportedly agreed to sell six retail buildings on Lincoln Road in Miami for $342 million. According to the Miami Herald, the buildings were purchased for a combined $191 million in 2011 and 2012, marking a $151 million profit in a few years.

Tenants include Starbucks, Fossil, and A/X Armani Jeans. The deal is with an unnamed institutional investor and is not yet completed. It ranks as the most expensive retail real estate transaction in Miami history.

Redmond, Wash. – Microsoft Corp. is reportedly negotiating to open a new store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. According to the New York Daily News, the site is only a few blocks from Apple’s large “glass cube” store in New York.

Seattle - Amazon.com has expanded same-day delivery in Baltimore, Dallas, Indianapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., metro areas, with more than a million eligible items now available for same-day delivery. These six cities join the existing same-day delivery-eligible cities of Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle.

Despite reporting a second-quarter sales increase of 5% and a digital sales increase of 9% — with mobile representing 15% of its total sales — HSN missed Wall Street expectations for its net income thanks to a 5% drop from $43.3 million a year earlier to $40.9 million for the quarter.

Overall net sales grew 5% over the prior year to $855.2 million.