eCommerce

What’s your favorite department store? The experts at London-based design consultancy Dalziel+Pow have just come out with their top 10 global department store destinations. It’s an interesting list, with some familiar players, and some less so.

Here are the firm’s picks:

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has some pretty vivid memories of back- to-school shopping: getting dragged out alongside my mother to buy new outfits and a few No. 2 pencils. Now, it seems like everyone in the retail world is finding a way to join the party.

British fashion retailer Oasis lets the permanent architecture do the talking at its store in Leeds, U.K. Designed as a model for international expansion, the 2, 238-sq.-ft. space was developed for ease of installation, flexibility and efficient detailing. The walls and ceiling were constructed away from the structural shell giving a fun stage-set feel while allowing elements to become standardized with less site-specific variables. The interior has the aesthetic of a Georgian house executed in a contemporary manner. (Oasis was designed by Dalziel+Pow, London.)

New York -- A buyout of Saks could further downgrade the retailer’s already low credit rating. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, credit rating provider S&P has placed Saks’ already non-investment-grade rating on watch for potential downgrade because any buyout would likely be leveraged with a large amount of debt. S&P currently gives Saks a credit rating of BB, the second-highest “junk bond” rating, which affects Saks’ loan interest rates.

INDIANAPOLIS — Office supplies and clothing retailers are not the only ones vying for foot traffic during back-to-school season. Students need laptops and other consumer electronics, too, and specialty retailer HH Gregg is jumping into the fray with its list of sales and specials targeted at the tech-savvy crowd.

The Indianapolis-based retailer is marketing lightweight laptops, fully equipped with high-powered processors and storage, and Samsung tablets to schools with computer- and audiovisual-equipped classrooms as well as college-bound students. 

By Lee Peterson, wdpartners.com

Across-the-board payroll cuts have rarely delivered margins long-term for retailers. Crude cuts are more than misguided today, but a dangerous strategy for stores in the fight for survival against Amazon.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears may not be the first name that springs to mind when one thinks of retailers that leverage technology to reach out to digital-savvy consumers, but it's demonstrating that it can stay current with the latest digital trends. 

Pittsburgh -- GNC Holdings Inc. on Monday opens its first freestanding store in China. The store, located in the Raffles City complex in Shanghai, is the first of about 25 standalone stores GNC plans to open in China during the next 12 months.