eCommerce

Pittsburgh -- American Eagle Outfitters is expanding its global retail presence with a series of licensed stores throughout Chile and Peru, building on existing growth markets throughout the region, including Colombia, Panama and the Caribbean, as well as company owned stores in Mexico.

The company has signed a multi-year license agreement with Eurofashion Limitada, a leading Chilean company and division of the Cencosud S.A. Group specialized in developing national and international fashion brands.

Mobile, Ala. -- JLL announced the expansion of its platform in Alabama with the addition of Shannon Tyndall and Allen Garstecki. Tyndall and Garstecki join JLL as VPs, and bring more than 20 years of combined experience to the firm. They will be based in the firm’s Mobile office, bolstering the existing practice that JLL built last year when it added Gulf Coast Retail Brokerage lead Josh Burmeister and VP Buff Teague.

The team provides retail and office expertise throughout Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle.

Teen and tween specialty retailer Five Below is accelerating store growth this year even though its relatively young store base mustered a modest 3.2% fourth quarter same store sales increase.

Five Below opened 62 new stores last year compared to 60 units the prior year to end the year with 366 locations in 21 states. The additional selling space and a 3.2% comp increase caused sales to increase 24.4% to $264 million from $212 million. Profits increased to $33.3 million compared to $24.8 million.

New York -- Facebook hopes to transform the way  customers communicate with retailers by re-inventing the customer service platform. Facebook and its partner Zendesk, a customer service platform firm, are teaming up to allow businesses to provide scalable and responsive customer service to the more than 600 million people worldwide who use Facebook's popular Messenger app. The social media giant is inviting retailers and other companies to develop software that allows customers to communicate instantly with them through Messenger.

Yet another study has documented retailers’ inability to keep pace with shoppers’ heightened expectations for a seamless experience driven by all manner of technological advancements.

New York -- U.S. retailers are struggling to meet the demands of consumers, according to a report by Accenture. An overwhelming majority (82%) of consumers expect a retailer’s prices to be the same in-store and online, up 13% over last year’s study, but only 34% of retailers met this expectation for more than 80% of the items assessed, Accenture found.

The end of a retail icon is always big news in commercial real estate, and it’s particularly relevant when the brand in question is closing more than 4,000 stores around the country.