Retail

New York -- Retailers with stores in Denver, San Antonio, Nashville, Fort Lauderdale and Dallas might see some strong sales in the months ahead based on a new report, which identifies those cities as the nation’s hottest housing market.

Shares of Etsy enjoyed a meteoric rise during their first day of trading on April 16, closing at $30 a share after shares in the initial public offering were priced at $16.

New York -- Foot Locker has launched its first smartphone mobile application for iOS and Android, along with 85 “Shoemoji” sneaker replica emoticons. The emoticons allow customers to share their love of sneakers in a visual way. They can also show off some of their favorite styles with the new Shoemojis.

St. Louis -- One of St. Louis’ oldest public companies and one of the nation’s most diverse footwear companies, Brown Shoe Company, is putting a new foot forward and changing its name to “Caleres,” a Latin word that means “passionate, to glow.” The Brown name, however, will live on in a new men’s footwear business called Brown Shoe Bootmakers that the company plans to launch in 2016.

New York - BFC Partners has broken ground on Empire Outlets, a 340,000-sq.-ft. retail complex that will create more than 1,800 jobs and bring $285 million in private investment to the New York City borough of Staten Island.  

Target is flexing its marketing muscles with the introduction of a 39-minute workout regimen at Lifetime Fitness clubs to shape up sales of its proprietary C9 Champion activewear brand.

Indianapolis - In partnership with Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd., Simon has opened the expansion of the Shisui Premium Outlets located outside Tokyo. Shisui Premium Outlets initially opened in April 2013.

This first phase of the project opened 100% leased with 121 stores featuring a mix of international brands, Japanese brands and restaurants. The second phase, opening April 17, adds 62 new stores, including four restaurants, bringing the total store count to 183. The expansion adds 136,000-sq.-ft. of stores, bringing the total project to 375,000-sq.-ft.

Merchandising and marketing concepts such as shoppable videos, digitized stores and social campaigns on Instagram and Twitter were alien ideas to retailers just a few years ago. Not anymore, according to Tom Ebling, CEO of cloud-based e-commerce solutions provider Demandware, who has a unique perspective on what it means to be a “connected brand.”