eCommerce

More Stride Rite shoe stores are closing as parent company Wolverine World Wide increases its focus on direct sales and improving the performance of lifestyle brands.

A department store and a beauty specialty retailer have the best momentum in social media going into the holiday season. Meanwhile, an online giant is losing steam.

In addition to the requisite comment about expecting the holidays to be highly promotional, Famous Footwear also expects the momentum it saw during back-to-school season to carry over to the fourth quarter.

Famous Footwear’s third quarter same store sales increased 4.4% and total sales increased 4.8% to $456 million, excluding the performance of the divested Shoes.com business, to represent 63% of parent company Caleres total sales of $728.6 million. Caleres is the company formerly known as Brown Shoe Company that changed its name earlier this year.

Click and collect, or customers ordering goods online for retailers to assemble for in-store pickup, is a practice retailers should consider this holiday season.

According to a new survey from order management solutions provider Shopatron, 31% of U.S. shoppers plan on using click-and-collect this year for holiday shopping.

Just in time for Black Friday, Structube, a leading Canadian retailer of modern furniture, has launched its e-commerce site in the United States.

In addition to its online platform, Structube, which operates 47 stores in Canada, plans to open stores across the United States, starting in 2016.

Structube specializes in contemporary style furniture, and offers “high style/low priced” pre-assembled and easy-to-assemble products. The company says it caters to young professionals, condo dwellers and small businesses.

The CEO of Guess?

While most large retailers now offer omnichannel return capabilities, the experience may leave something to be desired.

According to The Omni-Returns Experience Report, a new study of 25 major retailers including Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Apple, Gap, Sears, J.C.Penney and Macy's from StellaService, more than 75% of evaluated retailers offer buy online, return in store (BORIS).

Alibaba generated a record $14.3 billion in sales in a 24-hour period on Singles Day (Nov. 11) this year. That is roughly five times what Cyber Monday is expected to generate.

Clearly, Alibaba is doing something right and is setting a precedent for what other retailers worldwide hope to achieve. It’s worth looking at why Alibaba was so successful. So what can retailers take away from the Singles’ Day experience to maximize sales and give customers a great experience this holiday season, and throughout 2016?