Retail

Palo Alto, Calif. - HP has expanded its retail solutions portfolio with POS systems designed to maximize space and increase efficiency. The new HP RP2 All-In-One (AIO) features a small footprint, combined with flexible mounting options to help boost employee productivity, while the updated high-performance HP RP5, Model 5810, provides seamless control of operations from the store floor to the back office.

San Jose, Calif. – Brick-and-mortar retail sales fell 8.8% from January to April 2014 compared to the same period a year earlier. RetailNext analysis of almost 59 million specialty and larger format retail stores within the continental U.S. also shows that store traffic fell 8.2%.

Other findings include that brick-and-mortar transactions fell 9.2%, and, sales per store slipped 0.8%. However, two positive developments were an average transaction value increase of 0.5% and a 0.81% decrease in returns.

Minneapolis – The vast majority of Target customers intend to continue spending the same amount of money or more there in the next year as they did before the December 2013 data breach. According to a new Bloomberg National Poll of 1,020 Target customers, 85% of respondents will spend the same amount of money, 7% will spend more and 7% will spend less, with 1% having no opinion.

Irving, Texas - Texas-based lighting retailer IMW Internet Ventures LLC is opening its new online store at CedarParkLighting.com. CedarParkLighting.com offers a variety of lighting solutions and plans to continually update its inventory as new items are introduced.

Dedham, Mass. – Reflexis Systems Inc. is developing an application made with IBM Watson called Reflexis StorePulse that will issue alerts and tasks to regional and local store managers, based on local event and weather information, among other data, to plan their locations accordingly. The application is aimed at helping to maximize sales by ensuring each store has its finger on the local pulse.

New York -- Costco Wholesale Corp. has opened its first store in continental Europe, a 140,000-sq.-ft. location in Seville, Spain.

Costco will follow it up with a store in Madrid, according to media reports.

New York -- Dillard’s marked its 15th consecutive quarter of positive sales.

Despite weak sales in home and furniture, Dillard’s said sales trends in the first quarter were strongest in the men’s apparel and accessories category and the juniors’ and children’s apparel category followed by ladies’ accessories and lingerie.

The retailer reported total merchandise sales for the quarter of $1.539 billion, a 1% increase from $1.530 billion for the prior-year period. Comparable-store sales increased 2%.

New York -- Google announced that it will accept PayPal as a method of payment, in addition to credit cards, carrier billing, and gift cards, for its Play Store. The announcement came as a surprise in that PayPal is essentially a competitor to Google’s own Wallet service.