Direct To Consumer (DTC)

Fabletics, the fashion athletic brand co-founded by actress Kate Hudson, is setting up shop in the nation’s largest shopping mall.

The retailer is set to open at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, this spring. The 2,000-sq.-ft. store will feature the brand’s signature fashion-forward activewear for women and also its new line of men’s high performance athletic gear and lifestyle basics.

Fabletics was launched online in 2013. It made the leap to brick-and-mortar in fall 2015, and currently operates six stores.

Chain Store Age on Thursday announced the winners of its first annual Breakout Retailer Awards, which honors emerging retail/restaurant concepts that are innovative in their segment and show strong potential for growth.

Longtime Amazon executive Steve Kessel, whose team launched the first Kindle e-reader, is leading a retail store initiative at Amazon, ReCode.net reported. The report references two sources familiar with the plans, and states: “It’s not yet clear what those stores will sell or how they will be formatted, but the retail team’s mission is to reimagine what shopping in a physical store would be like if you merged the best of physical retail with the best of Amazon.

Boot Barn reported double-digit profit and revenue growth in the third quarter helped by its recent acquisition of Sheplers.

It makes no sense for Amazon.com to open the type of physical bookstores it helped obliterate, not when the online giant already has the physical infrastructure in place to support a large scale rollout of another type of store in one of retail’s hottest sectors.

It makes no sense for Amazon.com to open the type of physical bookstores it helped obliterate, not when the online giant already has the physical infrastructure in place to support a large scale rollout of another type of store in one of retail’s hottest sectors.

Walmart is extending the reach of its online grocery pickup service in Canada.

After initially launching online grocery pickup at 11 Canadian stores in July 2015, Walmart is now offering online grocery pickup at 12 more stores in the Greater Toronto market. Orders can be placed at six stores as of Feb. 3 with first pickup Feb. 9; while orders can be placed Feb. 18 with first pickup Feb. 23 at the remaining six.

While the United States continues to experience slow, yet steady economic growth, the future of the domestic retail industry remains unclear as businesses are forced to adapt to a world where consumers are more cost-conscious than ever before. Amidst this challenging climate, retailers must be smarter at understanding their customers, products and the experiences they offer.

Revisiting Brand and Revenue Expansion Strategies