Retail

Chattanooga, Tenn. -- To increase control of its digital activities, SmartFurniture.com chose to implement a stable of proprietary and third-party analytics, campaign management, and optimization tools. However, the solutions lacked the functionality and flexibility necessary to capture, analyze, and transform data into actionable insights, so SmartFurniture.com expanded adoption of Adobe Marketing Cloud.

New York – Eighty percent of U.S. consumers use the Internet when they shop. And the fourth annual research study of shopper behavior by Cisco Consulting Services revealed the percentage of “Über-Digitals” shoppers, who regularly use their smartphones for their shopping decision-making, nearly doubled to 18% of the sampled population.

Columbia, S.C. — EDENS has announced that four new local retailers and restaurants will open at Park Road Shopping Center in Charlotte, N.C., in the coming months.

The newly announced additions include:

• Cantina 1511, a Mexican eatery, plans to open toward the end of this summer.

• Va Da Vie is a local gelato store scheduled to open in February.

• LALA Girl, a locally owned beauty service makeup bar, plans to open this spring.

The Michigan Retailers Association (MRA) said that Michigan's retail industry had a poor holiday shopping season thanks to damaging winter storms and “outdated government policies that favor out-of-state online companies.”

Retailers posted only a 0.1% average increase over last holiday season, according to the Michigan Retail Index, a joint project of MRA and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Denver  — The Bridal Collection has leased an 18,030-sq.-ft. location at Fairways Plaza in Centennial, Colo. Fairways is a 121,256-sq.-ft. neighborhood center.

Transwestern represented the landlord, LNR Partners, in the transaction.

The bridal boutique has planned a May opening.

Although Starbucks’ profit in the first quarter rose a better-than-expected 25% to $540.7 million from $432 million in the year-ago period, same-store sales missed Wall Street expectations.

Same-store sales rose 5%, beneath Wall Street expectations of 5.9%. Revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 29, 2013 rose 12% to $4.24 billion from $3.79 billion.

Same-store sales in the Americas region also rose 5%, while analysts had expected a 6.4% increase.

February 2014 is projected to be the coldest in four years and drier than last year for the U.S. as a whole. Much colder year-on-year trends will be widespread at the start of the month, especially across the Central U.S. The axis of colder temperatures shifts to the Northern Tier of the U.S. by the second week of the month. Much colder trends early in the month will help to clear remaining winter merchandise. A taste of spring arrives in the Deep South in retail week three, making this a favorable time for categories such as sun care, apparel and cold beverages.

Minneapolis – The Tile Shop is expanding its presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area with a new store in Southlake, Texas. The new 18,615-sq.-ft. Southlake location is The Tile Shop’s third store in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex (including stores in Plano and Dallas), and the company’s fifth store in Texas (Dallas, Plano, Southlake, Austin, San Antonio).