Department Store

Brand-building consultant Denise Lee Yohn has released her annual “Brands to Watch” list for 2017. There are 26 companies on the list, with retail and social media brands accounting for 10 of the spots.  Here’s a review:   Barnes & Noble. The venerable bookstore chain has let its CEO go, lowered sales expectations, and shrunk its footprint by dozens of stores. Meanwhile Amazon Books is opening stores. Is 2017 the year B&N’s death will become imminent?!  

Target Corp. has teamed up with Domino, a trendy home decor magazine.   Domino has opened its first-ever retail store, a pop-up sponsored by Target, in Manhattan, Mediapost.com reported.  

Retail real estate developers and management companies are coming away from this week’s New York Deal Making show more optimistic than they’ve been in years.   “There’s some uncertainty following the election, but the stock market is up, the holiday’s been strong, and consumer confidence is high,” said CBL CEO Stephen Lebovitz at the International Council of Shopping Centers show, whose aisles were crammed with some 10,000 attendees.  

Gordmans Stores named Ramin Mozafari as senior VP of planning and allocation.   Mozafari joins Gordmans from Kohl's Department Stores, where he most recently was senior VP, divisional merchandise manager for accessories. Prior to Kohl's, from 2008 to 2012, he served DSW, where he held various merchandising roles including VP, general merchandise manager.  

Digital disruptors continue to change the pace of retail — and Neiman Marcus is ready.   Like many retailers, the luxury department store chain continues to introduce more mobile technology at store-level, a move that supports both in-store operations and consumer-driven tasks, from browsing through procurement.    “It is a trend that requires our network to be a mission-critical lifeline at every store,” said Scott Emmons, head of the Neiman Marcus Innovation Lab (iLab). 

Beleaguered Sears has lost two of its top executives.   Jeffrey Balagna, Sears' executive VP, and Joelle Maher, Sears president and chief member officer both left the company within the past week, reported Business Insider.    Sears, which will report its third quarter earnings on Thursday, did not announce or explain the departures,  

There is one trend from the past couple of years shows no signs of stopping anytime soon: the movement of online-only retailers to the physical space. If anything, it’s gaining more momentum.      According to JLL’s Screens to Stores report, even more online retailers will experiment with physical locations in the next five years.    

Rebecca Minkoff is looking to bring self-checkout to fashion retailing.   The fashion retailer has debuted a self-checkout system at its Manhattan flagship, Fastcodedesign.com reported, developed by tech startup QueueHop.