Direct To Consumer (DTC)

The same day that TJX announced the retirement of its CEO, Ascena Retail Group named a new executive to lead its recently acquired Ann Inc. division.
 

Following months of speculation, Amazon.com is officially launching Handmade at Amazon. The new online store features handmade items crafted and sold directly by artisans, and is a direct challenge to Etsy Inc.

Handmade at Amazon offers more than 80,000 handcrafted items from around the world. Customers can shop by country, locally, or by individual artisan profile. Shoppers can also browse by product category, including jewelry, home décor, artwork, stationery and party supplies, kitchen and dining, and furniture.

Retailers constantly experiment to serve customer needs in new ways and HSN has taken that concept to a new level with an initiative involving Ford.
 
Through the end of October, HSN and Ford Motor Company are offering a “preferred price event” based on the core value proposition of a prenegotiated price on a wide range of the automaker’s models.
 

Saks Fifth Avenue is expanding further into the specialty store business.

The retailer announced plans to open a 21,000-sq.-ft. store devoted to jewelry and contemporary women’s ready-to-wear in Greenwich, Connecticut. Earlier this year, Saks announced plans to open a standalone shoe store concept, 10022-Shoe, also in Greenwich.

Saks already operates a women’s-only store in Greenwich, which it opened in 1997.

All three of the Saks stores will be in walking distance of one another.

Ross Dress for Less will open a new store in Elizabeth City, North Carolina on Oct. 10. The 18,000-sq.-ft.store is located in Tanglewood Pavilions.

The opening is part of the retailer’s 2015 expansion program, totaling approximately 70 new locations during the year.

There will be a change at the top of lifestyle apparel retailer Tommy Bahama.

Jet is abandoning its fee model less than three months after it launched in order to broaden its appeal to shoppers.

The online marketplace startup announced Wednesday that it will get rid of its $50 annual membership fee.

Amazon.com is the No. 1 website for online shoppers in the United States, according to a new survey.

A Survata study commissioned by BloomReach reports that in a survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers, 44% bypass the entire Internet and go directly to Amazon.com first to search for products, compared to 34% who use top search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!.