Direct To Consumer (DTC)

Specialty apparel retailer American Eagle had a solid fourth quarter and now is eyeing growth opportunities far from its home market by teaming up with leading South American retail conglomerate Cencosud.

Destination XL Group Inc. reached a new level of performance in the fourth quarter with a whopping 16.4% same store sales increase.

Separating itself from Sears Holdings a year ago has not helped Land’s End financial footing judging from the company’s fourth quarter profit and same store sales decline.

Land’s End sales declined 4.9% to $504.6 million and net income declined 28% to $33.1 million in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 30. Merchandise sales and services were negatively impacted by a $3.4 million product recall in the quarter that negatively impacted net income by $2.6 million.

Facebook is aiming to revolutionize the way customers communicate with retailers by re-inventing the customer service platform.

The tech giant is inviting retailers and other companies to develop software that allows customers to communicate instantly with them through Facebook Messenger. Facebook and its partner Zendesk, a customer service platform firm, are teaming up to allow businesses to provide scalable and responsive customer service to the more than 600 million people worldwide who use Messenger.

The end of a retail icon is always big news in commercial real estate, and it’s particularly relevant when the brand in question is closing more than 4,000 stores around the country.

Off-price retailer Ross Stores feels so good about its sales performance and outlook that it has approved a 2-for-1 stock split scheduled for June.

The company said the split will be paid in the form of a 100% stock dividend to stockholders of record as of April 22. 

Ross Stores had fiscal 2014 revenue of $11 billion. 

The e-commerce world in which Deliv CEO Daphne Carmeli lives is one where the fastest delivery method is also the least expensive. How can that be?

Seattle – Outdoor retail co-op REI is being very “cooperative” in returning $168 million to its members. In 2014, 945,000 new members joined the co-op, taking active membership to a high of 5.5 million.

For the year, REI reported record annual revenues of $2.2 billion, a 10% increase from 2013. When the co-op performs well, active members receive an annual 10% dividend, based on their eligible annual purchases.

New York -- Fresh & Easy plans to close 55 stores, which would leave the chain with about 110 locations, the Orange Country Register reported. Fresh & Easy is owned by the Yucaipa Cos., which bought the supermarket chain out of bankruptcy in 2013 from U.K. retailer Tesco. It operates stores in Nevada, California and Arizona.

The stores slated for closing do not meet Fresh & Easy’s new model of “modern convenience.”

Toronto - Joe Fresh and Ryerson University are launching a long-term partnership that will see the creation of Canada's first fashion innovation center. The Joe Fresh Centre for Fashion Innovation, made possible with a $1 million investment from Joe Fresh, will develop and fund Canada's emerging fashion-inspired businesses through Ryerson's Fashion Zone, an incubator that supports students and student entrepreneurship.