Department Store

San Francisco - Shopping activity in March 2015 was relatively flat compared to the same month the prior year, yet rebounded from a lethargic and wintery February. According to new monthly benchmark data from Euclid Analytics, traffic declined less than expected year-over-year due to holiday shopping for an early-April Easter.

In-store engagement improved significantly year-over-year, as consumers’ desire to spend re-emerged after a subdued winter. Euclid estimates sales growth in the following retail verticals of:

A big jump in digital sales and the integration of Saks Fifth Avenue helped Hudson’s Bay Co. post a larger increase in profit in the fourth quarter.

Seattle – Nordstrom Inc. plans to open two new Nordstrom Rack stores in Pittsburgh and Novi, Michigan. The 40,000-sq.-ft. Pittsburgh store is scheduled to open in fall 2016 at The Block Northway mall.

Toronto -- Hudson’s Bay Company’s net profit in the fourth quarter jumped to C$111 million (USD $88.9 million) from C$37 million ,in the year-ago period, helped by strong digital sales, the successful integration of Saks Fifth Avenue and the strong U.S. dollar. The retailer said it plans to accelerate openings of Saks’ off-price Off 5th brand and strengthen its digital and omnichannel capabilities in its current fiscal year.  

In a column I wrote between Black Friday and Christmas last year, I talked about how “apparel sales have been languishing”, and I mentioned that the “industry buzz is all about the struggles in apparel, where retailers just can’t seem to discount clothing enough to get things to pick up.”

New York -- The United States is the top market for e-commerce, followed by China and the United Kingdom, according to A.T. Kearney’s 2015 Global Retail E-Commerce Index. Although e-commerce remains less than 10% of total retail sales in the United Sates, it has seen consistent growth, and rose by 15% in 2014.

New York – Japanese retailer Uniqlo continues its U.S. expansion with plans open its first-ever stores in the Seattle, Denver and Washington, D.C., metro areas.

In the state of Washington, the retailer will open a 13,000-sq.-ft. location at Seattle’s The Bellevue Collection this fall. In spring/summer 2015, the retailer will open a 10,000-sq.-ft. store at Tyson's Corner Center, and a 22,000-sq.-ft. store on Denver's 16th Street, at The Denver Pavilions.

Seattle - Nordstrom has implemented new Oracle Retail Merchandise Operations Management and Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management solutions to support its expansion in Canada. The retailer plans to roll out the latest releases of these Oracle Retail solutions companywide to support its Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack stores.