eCommerce

Five Below is looking to generate brand awareness and traffic after selecting a new advertising agency to handle creative and media duties.

The teen and pre-teen retailer known for selling products for $5 or less chose Zimmerman Advertising, a division of Omnicon, as its agency of record and Five Below CEO Joel Anderson couldn’t be happier.

Cabela’s smaller stores are not as productive as the company would like, so the outdoor retailer is putting the brakes on new store growth while it focuses on productivity.

Veteran apparel retailer Tracy Gardner will join the Gap Inc. board, effective Nov. 11.

Gap has relied on Gardner on multiple occasions the past 25 years as an employee and advisor. Gardner worked at the company from 1991 to 1994 in various creative roles and from 1998 to 2004 in senior leadership positions, including head of Gap adult merchandising. This past year she served as an advisor to the Gap brand and functioned in a similar role in 2012.

Cabela’s smaller stores are not as productive as the company would like so the outdoor retailer is tapping the brakes on growth while it focuses on productivity.
 
In conjunction with the release of disappointing third quarter results and a reduced full year profit forecast, Cabela’s said it was evaluating it store expansion schedule and currently expects to open seven stores next year and no more than that in 2017.

With the rise of multichannel retailing and a saturated retail market, today’s customers expect to find the products they want, when they want and in a way that is most convenient to them. Be it via speedy delivery, in-store pickup or traditional store visits, shoppers today want to be connected to their purchases quickly. Retailers that don’t provide such services will be outperformed by competitors that do this Christmas season.

Retailers should continually re-invent the in-store experience to keep up with changing consumer needs.

That is one of the key imperatives for growth identified in a new retail index and executive survey, “Reigniting Growth: Three Imperatives for Retail’s Future,” by SAP SE.

It’s not like the holidays weren’t going to be challenging enough, but now Amazon.com is expanding its free same-day delivery service to more markets.

Amazon.com said it expanded it Prime free same-day delivery to Chicago and Orlando and new locations in the greater New York, northern New Jersey and Philadelphia area. The service, which does require an annual $99 Prime membership fee, is now available in 750 cities in 16 metropolitan areas. It launched in May.

The Bon-Ton Stores announced it will close its Elder-Beerman stores in the Huntington Mall in Huntington, West Virginia and the Lima Mall in Lima, Ohio. The retailer said it will not renew the stores’ leases, which terminate January 31, 2016.

Additionally, Bon-Ton is closing its namesake store in the Carousel Center in Syracuse, New York, upon its scheduled lease termination on February 28, 2016.

The company said it does not expect costs associated with the closing of the locations to be material.

Williams-Sonoma has entered into an agreement with Mexico’s leading department store retailer to open stores in that country.

Williams-Sonoma said it will open 13 stores across its various brands — Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen and West Elm — In Mexico City, by the end of 2015. The stores are opening through a franchise partnership with Mexican department store retailer Liverpool.

Kansas City, Mo. -- Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation headquarter in Kansas City, Missouri, has named Stacey Paine as its new president.

Paine will replace Bill Lucas who is retiring at year-end after serving 20 years as the president of Crown Center, an 85-acre mixed-use community, privately financed by Hallmark Cards, Inc., that combines 2.2 million sq. ft. of office space, retail, hotels, residential and entertainment attractions within its boundaries.