eCommerce

Walmart’s U.K. subsidiary Asda is expanding what customers can do with in-store pickup and return through its new service called toyou.

Retailers frequently misjudge the omnichannel needs of their shoppers when they visit stores.

According to a new study of 500 consumers and 150 retail decision-makers in the U.S. and U.K. by Forrester Consulting on behalf of RetailNext, “Real-Time Data Drives the Future of Retail,” only 49% of consumer respondents feel they receive consistent seamless experiences across all channels.

Warm weather, as well as layoffs in the oil and gas industry hindered sales Boot Barn during the holiday quarter.

Boot Barn announced preliminary results for the third quarter ended Dec. 26 as follows:

• Preliminary net sales increased 49% to approximately $194 million;

• Opened 5 new stores and completed the rebranding of 19 Sheplers stores;

Photo: Jerry Azarkman, president of Star World

A just-released holiday survey reinforces the dominance of the omnichannel shopper.

Nearly one-third (32%) of shoppers the past holiday season used the click and collect method – with 69% of these shoppers purchasing additional items in the store when they went to pick up the item and 36% making another purchase in an adjacent store, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers’ Holiday Consumer Purchasing Trends study.

Oracle is introducing Oracle Retail 15, an enterprise retail suite that includes diverse features such as new cloud-based applications and POS hardware solutions.

In the cloud area, Oracle is adding four new retail-specific services.

• Using Oracle Retail Sales and Productivity Cloud Service, retailers can gain real-time insights into comparative sales, salesperson productivity, merchandise productivity, store sales, and store traffic.

From food trucks to high-end restaurants and everything in between, dining has never been more essential to the shopping center experience.

“E-commerce has made it more important for retail centers to enhance the experience,” said Terry Montesi, CEO, Trademark Property Co. And food works great with retail.”

Genesco is lowering its earnings forecast for the fiscal year despite a 3% increase in same-store sales over the holiday period.

The company said same-store sales increased 3% for the quarter-to-date period ended Jan.2. Sales for the company's e-commerce and catalog direct sales businesses increased 20% on a comparable basis for that period.