Sales & Marketing

Tilly’s has appointed Jon Kubo to serve in the company’s newly created position of chief digital officer, effective Aug. 15.   Kubo will oversee e-commerce and digital marketing to define a long-term vision for the specialty retailer’s digital commerce efforts and create consistency in digital consumer experiences across all interaction points.  

A start-up consumer electronics retailer has deployed a friendly-looking, white plastic robot named Pepper to greet shoppers.   In a two-week test, high-tech retailer B8ta is the first retail store in the United States to deploy the humanoid robot, which is from Japan’s SoftBank Robotics, Mercurynews.com reported.   

Back-to-school promotions seems to start earlier and earlier each year. But most consumers aren’t buying the pitch.      That’s one of the findings of a new report by A.T. Kearney in which the majority of consumers surveyed said they planned to do most of their BTS shopping in August and September. (Only 4% of shoppers did any of their shopping as early as July 4.) And in another nod to the "old school" shopper, the study suggests that brick-and-mortar will still make or break back-to-school sales.

J.C. Penney Co. continues to make progress in its turnaround efforts as its narrowed its second quarter loss and posted a gain in same-store sales even as Macy’s and Kohl’s posted declines.    The retailer also reaffirmed its full year forecast of a 3%- to 4% increase in same-store sales.    It’s been a busy few months for Penney, which has been opening expanded appliance departments and testing in-store partnerships with Ashley Furniture and Empire Today.  

Gander Mountain announced that Ron Stoupa will join the company as senior VP - marketing & e-commerce starting on Monday, Aug. 15.      Stoupa will lead all marketing and e-commerce functions, including brand development, customer engagement and omnichannel initiatives for Gander Mountain.   

The chief executive of Hasbro Inc. has joined the board of directors of Gap Inc., effective Aug. 12.   The retailer said it is adding Brian D. Goldner to its board as the merchant focuses on its “next era of retail.” His appointment comes shortly after Gap posted a disappointing sales for the second quarter.   

Consumers cooled their spending in July.    Retail sales were flat in July, in line with a revised 0.8% gain in June, according to figures released Friday by the Commerce Department. The report ended three straight months of monthly gains.     Sales in July rose 2.3% from a year ago. Excluding automobiles and parts sales, sales fell 0.3% in July — the weakest reading since January, after a 0.9% gain in the prior month.