eCommerce

A specialty retailer whose tagline is “Where America is made,” is betting on brick and mortar to tell its brand story and provide more jobs.

Shinola, the Detroit-based retailer and manufacturer of pricey watches, leather goods and bicycles plans to open 10 stores this year, and 12 to 15 stores annually over the next coming years.

Macy’s announced that a Bloomingdale’s store will open in spring 2017 in Kuwait as part of the company’s strategic partnership with Al Tayer Group LLC.

This will be Bloomingdale’s second international location (the first opened in Dubai in 2010) and ahead of Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores scheduled to open in Abu Dhabi in 2018 – all in partnership with Al Tayer.

Boston -- The Wilder Companies announced that Shelley M. Anderson has been named director of new business development, a newly created position for the company. Anderson will be responsible for developing retail real estate opportunities to expand the company’s portfolio of open-air centers throughout the eastern portion of the U.S. She will focus on existing center acquisitions, exploring joint venture opportunities with existing owners and growing the company’s burgeoning third-party services business.

Abandoned carts get plenty of attention. Retailers run reports on lost revenue from abandons. Email campaigns start hitting customers as soon as an hour after they abandon. A day later, another email comes.

Targeting cart abandoners is definitely effective. Statistics show that as much as 25% of lost revenue can be regained via abandoned cart emails. But what if you didn't lose that revenue in the first place?

We'll never live in a zero abandonment world. But we can definitely limit the chances of abandonment.

2016 will be a year when many niche innovations in customer experience will become mainstream as consumers expect more out of their shopping experiences, forcing traditional retailers to step up or risk becoming irrelevant. Marketplace buzzwords and emerging trends, such as personalization and seamless mobile access, will become table-stake elements of the customer experience.

Here are ways retailers will take their customer experience to the next level:

Personalization

Consumers are increasing their use of apps for a specific purpose that should make retailers happy.

According to a new survey of U.S. adults conducted by KRC Research for Verizon, 56% of consumers made a product purchase with a smartphone app in 2015. This figure includes 23% of smartphone owners who purchased a product with an app for the first time.

By age group, 70% of millennials age 18-34 made a product purchase using an app in 2015, an 85% increase from 2014. This led 66% of Gen Xers and 39% of Baby Boomers who did so.

Starbucks Corp. reported first quarter earnings and same-store sales that topped expectations. But the coffee giant gave a soft earnings outlook for its current quarter.

Starbucks reported better-than-expected earnings of $687.6 million for the period ended Dec. 27, 2015, down from $983.1 billion a year earlier. The prior-year period was boosted by a hefty $391 million gain related to a joint venture.

Revenue rose 12% to $5.37 billion. Analysts had forecast $5.39 billion in revenue.

On the heels of announcing it would close more than 150 stores in the United States, Walmart says it will open 15 supercenters this month in Canada.

These grand openings bring Walmart Canada's total store count to 400 stores, including 312 supercenters and 88 discount stores. The company says its 15 supercenter projects represent an investment of more than $100 million and have generated approximately 700 new store jobs and 1,450 construction and trade jobs in that nation.