Retail

At a time of year when consumers are still caught up in end-of-summer barbecues and back-to-school shopping, retailers are getting caught up in the rush of holiday planning. Holiday sales can account for 20% to 40% of a retailer’s total annual sales, according to the National Retail Federation, and a successful holiday can turn around a bad year or make a good year even better.

But the holiday season presents challenges as well as opportunities.

Des Moines, Iowa — The Des Moines Area Community College opened its school year with a new campus: a 65,000-sq.-ft. former J.C. Penney store located on the main level of Southridge Mall.

The mall’s owner, Macerich sold the space to DMACC for $1. The school, which has three other campuses in the Des Moines metro area, has invested $13 million in design, construction, equipment, labs and classrooms. Major donations will be announced this fall.

St. Louis – Brown Shoe Company swung from a net loss in the second quarter of fiscal 2012 to net earnings in the second quarter of fiscal 2013. The retailer also boosted net sales and same-store sales.

To provide customers with true omnichannel shopping capabilities, retailers must internally align all store and ERP functions. Mike Burge, founder and CEO of integrated retail enterprise platform provider MI9, recently spoke with Chain Store Age about how effective omnichannel retailing works and how retailers can leverage IT systems to achieve success in an omnichannel environment.

What are the main objectives of omnichannel?

The Woodlands, Texas – Conn’s Inc. opens two new HomePlus stores on Tuesday in Tempe, Ariz., and Houston. The new Conn’s HomePlus store format showcases furniture and mattresses in addition to consumer electronics and home appliances.

The stores are located at 5000 Arizona Mills Circle, Tempe, and 9567 South Main Street, Houston. The Arizona Mills Mall location is Conn’s third new store in the Phoenix metropolitan market and fourth location in Arizona.

Americans are eating more chicken and paying more to do so, according to leading poultry producer Sanderson Farms.

The company said its third quarter sales increased 18.3% to $739 million and profits grew 136% to $67.9 million, or $2.95 a share, compared to profits of $28.7 million, or $1.25 a share.

The strong showing was the result of improved market conditions as whole bird prices remained at historically high prices during the quarter, according to Joe F. Sanderson, Jr., chairman and CEO of Sanderson Farms, Inc.

In retail, as in life, experience is everything. Whether it’s online, on a smartphone or in the store, it really doesn’t make a difference. A bad experience will turn off customers, while a good one will build brand advocates. It’s always been like that, of course. But today’s technology-enabled shoppers have changed the rules of the game by upping the stakes considerably.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- “The Chore Score,” an app that allows parents to create chore lists for their kids with rewards that can be redeemed at Sears stores or Sears.com, won the recent Sears Startup & Developer Challenge. The contest, held for three days, featured more than 150 participants using the Sears development API to create apps that would strengthen the experience of the Sears Shop Your Way membership program.