eCommerce

Apparel chains focused on tweens and teens are increasingly at risk of filing for bankruptcy protection.

At least that’s the view of Michael McGrail, COO of Tiger Capital Group and a veteran retail liquidation and asset appraisal executive.

Boston -- Gordon Brothers Group announced that it has entered into an agreement with NapaStyle and its creditors to acquire the company’s assets, including intellectual property, inventory and furniture, fixtures and equipment.

Founded by celebrity chef, Michael Chiarello, NapaStyle offers handcrafted and artisanal home goods, furniture and specialty foods for decorating, entertaining, cooking, wine, garden and home enthusiasts through store, online and catalog channels.

Hickory Farms is looking for new ways to grow following the operator of the company acquisition last fall by a private equity firm and the recent appointment of a CEO who spent time at RedBox and Crate & Barrel.

Modell’s Sporting Goods continues to grow its brick-and-mortar footprint. The New York-based company has added two more stores to its portfolio, one in Boston and the other in Philadelphia. Both stores are in prime locations formerly occupied by City Sports. (City Sports filed for bankruptcy in October 2016, and subsequently announced it would close all locations.)

In Boston, Modell’s opened an 11,000-sq.-ft. store on Boylston Street, in the city’s Back Bay area. It’s the retailer’s first outpost in downtown Boston.

Specialty candy supplier Jelly Belly Candy Company is modernizing its direct-to-consumer website with help from cloud-based e-commerce technology provider Mozu.

Jelly Belly has replaced its homegrown e-commerce system with Mozu’s SaaS-based cloud commerce platform. With the Mozu platform: Jelly Belly has launched 40 new global sites, expanded organic site traffic by 21%, doubled the efficiency of website speeds, established a single platform for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and worldwide commerce, and increased mobile sales by 300%.

The growth of digital shopping tools continues to benefit physical stores with new seasonal research from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) showing how much.

It’s been more than 15 years since they started ringing the death knell for brick-and-mortar retail. And although the Internet shopping base continues to grow, the in-store experience is here to stay. Even the doomsayers have quieted during recent years. There are simply too many things about in-store shopping that the online experience can’t offer.

Hickory Farms is looking for new ways to grow following the operator of the company acquisition last fall by a private equity firm and the recent appointment of a CEO who spent time at RedBox and Crate & Barrel.