Department Store

High-quality malls and lifestyle centers are best positioned to capitalize on the shift toward experience-based spending.    That’s according to a new study by the research arm of MetLife Investment Management (MIM), which finds that millennials’ preference for acquiring experiences and memories over material goods will play a significant role in determining which retail formats will outperform in the future.   

Saks Fifth Avenue has relocated its store in Houston’s The Galleria, opening a larger space that offers the ultimate luxury department store experience.  

When it comes to supporting the back end of omnichannel retailing, the Bon-Ton Stores Inc. digs deeper than supply chain.

Bon-Ton has selected the end-user experience monitoring (EUM) solution from Catchpoint Systems, a digital performance analytics company, to help optimize the company’s digital customer experience. Specifically, the retailer will use Catchpoint’s Synthetic (Active) Monitoring solution to ensure that its e-commerce website and mobile site deliver consistently high performance, and to find and fix issues before they impact consumers.

Investors in Target Corp. decided on several important issues at the retailer’s 2016 annual meeting.

Shareholders elected 14 members of the board of directors, ratified the appointment of Target’s independent registered public accounting firm, approved proposal on compensation for executives and rejected one shareholder proposal.

Another day, another finance chief at a well-known retailer is leaving.

Jane Hamilton Nielsen, CFO at Coach Inc., will be departing the company to pursue another opportunity. In order to facilitate a smooth transition, Nielsen is expected to stay into August 2016. The company is commencing a search for her permanent successor with Crist Kolder Associates. Andrea Shaw Resnick, global head of investor relations and corporate communications, will be appointed interim CFO until a permanent appointment is made.

The SouthBay Pavilion Center in Carson, California, is getting a little bigger.
 
KTGY Architecture + Planning has unveiled the design for Vintage Real Estate’s retailer expansion at SouthBay Pavilion, a 1.2 million-sq.-ft. enclosed shopping center.  KTGY adapted Forever 21’s F21 RED brand for the new SouthBay Pavilion store, which includes large floor-to-ceiling display window boxes, textured wall treatments and red metal panels.
 

Today’s retailers face significant challenges as online increases its share of wallet, mall-based stores stumble, technology requirements mount, and customer engagement remains elusive for many. The business environment is clearly marked by the need to rationalize store counts, headcount, and product count.
 
As management faces up to these challenges, they seek purposeful justification of expenditures, higher shareholder returns, and greater customer engagement.
 

Anyone who is a dad, or sells products dads like, may be in for a happy Father’s Day.

According to a new survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insight and Analytics, consumers say they will spend more than ever on Father’s Day in 2016 (Sunday, June 19). Shoppers are expected to spend an average $125.92 for the holiday, up 9% from the prior year’s $115.57. Total spending is expected to reach $14.3 billion, the highest in the survey’s 13-year history but still below the 2016 Mother’s Day total of $21.4 billion.