Retail

American Apparel is bolstering its omnichannel effort with two new hires in marketing and digital engagement.

The company announced two leadership appointments: Thoryn Stephens has been named chief digital officer, a newly created position, and Cynthia Erland has been named SVP of marketing.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot Inc. is seeing some fiscal benefits from its November 2013 merger with OfficeMax. The retailer shrank its net loss in fourth quarter 2014 to $84 million, from $120 million in the same quarter the prior year.

Net sales climbed 10% to $3.83 billion, from $3.49 billion.

Dillard’s CEO credited an improved assortment and top-notch service with the company’s best sales performance of 2014 in the fourth quarter.

The company reported fourth-quarter net income of $130.5 million, up 9.5% from $119.1 million. Same-store sales rose 3% to $2.136 billion. Dillard's took in $2.18 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter, up from $2.08 billion during the same period last year.

Washington, D.C. – Retailers looking forward to consumers receiving their tax refund checks this year may be setting themselves up for disappointment. According to a new survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics, close to half (47%) of the 66% of Americans expecting a tax refund this year plan to save it.

Irvine, Calif. -- America's largest western and work wear retailer, Boot Barn, will open a store on March 6 at Arapahoe Crossing in Aurora, Colorado.

The new location will be the company's ninth store in Colorado and the 15th new store opened during this fiscal year.

With the opening of the new store in Aurora, Boot Barn has 166 stores from coast to coast.
 

New York -- Atlanta-based The Home Depot reported a strong fourth quarter performance, with sales up 8.3% to $19.2 billion, and fourth quarter net earnings up 36.1% to $1.38 billion.

Comp-store sales for the quarter were positive 7.9%, and positive 8.9% for U.S. stores. Home Depot CEO Craig Menear pointed to a number of factors responsible for the growth.

“We had a strong finish to the year, as strength across the store, the recovering U.S. housing market and solid execution aided our business in 2014,” he said.

Neiman Marcus is taking omnichannel retailing to a whole new level by integrating payment technology into its already successful store app.

The NM Mobile Wallet is the first deployment of a mobile wallet capability created specifically for a retail card partner, enabling customers to quickly and easily make in-store purchases at Neiman Marcus Group stores without their physical credit card. Consumers can enjoy this simplified payment function with transaction authorization and information technology supported by Capital One.

Canton, Mass. – Dunkin’ Donuts has signed a multi-unit store development agreement with a new franchise group, Donut World, LLC, to develop two Dunkin' Donuts restaurants and one combination restaurant with its sister brand Baskin-Robbins, in Columbia and Jefferson City, Missouri. The group's first restaurant is planned to open in Columbia this summer and the remainder will open in 2017.