Retail

Famous Footwear parent company Brown Shoe said it believes stepped up omnichannel efforts will drive sales this back-to-school season sales after reporting better than expected second quarter results.

Austin, Texas - Approximately two in three credit cardholders typically use cash for purchases of less than five dollars. According to a new CreditCards.com report, a clear generational divide in the way Americans pay for small purchases means that might not be the case for much longer.

While holiday forecasts are just starting to come out, most industry experts agree that retailers can expect mobile to command a bigger share of online shopping. Forrester projects $294 billion in e-commerce sales across 30 retail categories in 2014, with $87 billion of the total occurring on phones and tablets in 2014. A report by IBM forecasts that mobile will account for more than 20% of site sales and more than 43% of site traffic, by November 2014.

“Mobile should be a primary purchase channel within a few years,” said Bill Davis, director of MB&G Consulting.

New York -- Fashion powerhouse Zara, owned by Spain’s Inditex, used social media to apologize after complaints poured in via Twitter that the retailer was selling a piece of clothing that closely resembled a uniform worn in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The item in question, called the “Sheriff,” was a children’s blue-and-white striped top with a prominent six-pointed yellow star.

The LED revolution sweeping the building industry is now ready for the next stage: intelligent lighting control, which has the potential to transform the retail environment by making it more flexible, better understood and connective with shoppers.

LEDs are inherently dimmable, and many LED products are sold with dimming capability regardless of how the owner plans to control them.

Franklin, Tenn. -- The retail and hospitality market is entering a time of unprecedented IT growth for 2015, with overall spending expected to increase 5% over 2014  and surpass $190 billion worldwide, according to a new report by IHL, a global research and advisory firm specializing in technologies for the retail and hospitality industries.

Combining system controls in refrigeration, HVAC and lighting is key

Retail facility directors continually look for ways to drive down operational costs, but are limited in their efforts without a strong control system. Installation of a facility control system can provide savings and improve operations of a small-format retail store if adhered to well.

Why is it important to use controls to ensure store policies are being enforced?

Express CEO Michael Weiss was optimistic about the retailer’s progress in the second quarter, especially considering the difficult environment the company has been dealing with in recent months.