Retail

By Sherry Orel, [email protected]

Retail today is supposed to be all about the experience. After all, it’s so easy to shop online. And yet so many retailers could be providing a much richer customer experience if they only made a few simple changes that meet customers needs and expectations.

Minneapolis -- The Opus Group has completed construction of a 42,300-sq.-ft. store for outdoor retailer Gander Mountain in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Opus also constructed the Gander Mountain store in Valdosta, Ga., and provided construction management services for the store in Opelika, Ala. In addition, the retailer has awarded Opus a contract for a 45,600-sq.-ft. store in Albany, Ga.

Washington, D.C. – Shop.org, the digital retail division of the National Retail Federation (NRF), named six new members to its board of directors and also reappointed three existing members. All nine members will serve two-year terms.

Tapping into the data to increase conversion — and sales

The quickest, surest and most cost-effective way to increase store sales is to improve each store's conversion rate.

It's estimated that more than 50% of North American specialty retailers have installed traffic monitoring/counting systems in some or all of their stores. But many retailers have failed to take advantage of the fact that the data these increasingly sophisticated devices generate can help them improve performance and capitalize on sales.

Upon hearing the phrase "omnichannel," most retailers probably envision reaching out to customers across front-end touchpoints, such as store, PC, mobile device and social media. But fulfilling customer needs across those touchpoints does not occur in a vacuum. Tamara J.

Cloud technology opens torrent of customer data for Chico's FAS

Maintaining a wealth of customer data has become a primary directive for retail IT departments. In recent years, retailers have been making substantial investments in solutions that collect and store data relating to their customers' purchases, behaviors, preferences, demographic characteristics and almost any other traits you can think of. But after all this data has been captured, what do you do with it?

Columbus, Ohio - The Affiliated Business Group (ABG), a division of DSW Inc., will exclusively supply the footwear departments of all U.S. Loehmann’s stores and the loehmanns.com e-commerce site. The initial rollout of the news arrangement is expected to commence in a few stores starting December, 013 with the balance of the chain and e-commerce launching in the first quarter of 2014. ABG will plan, procure, and deliver the entire women's and men's footwear inventory, while Loehmann’s will provide staffing for the shoe departments.

Union, N.J. – Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc. reported positive financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2013. Although net earnings fell from $206.8 million to $202.5 million, net earnings per diluted share increased roughly 4.5% from $0.89 to $0.93.