Sales & Marketing

With rival AutoZone continuing to produce record results, Pep Boys' financial performance is headed in the opposite direction as uncertainty looms over who will acquire the company.

Pep Boys reported a 1.8% decrease in same store sales for the period ended Oct. 31. Net sales decreased by $9.4 million, or 1.8%, to $508.1 million from $517.6 million in the prior year. Net earnings were $1.3 million or 2 cents per share as compared to a net loss of $2 million in the prior year.

Specialty gourmet gift retailer Harry & David wants to make sure information about its stores is as easily accessible as possible.

Harry & David, is leveraging the SIM Partners Velocity local marketing automation platform to manage its local search marketing efforts. With Velocity, Harry & David will be able to manage and distribute its store location data. Thus the retailer will be able to ensure that information about its retail stores is accurate and visible in local and mobile search results.

Many mall retailers have been having a tough time lately attracting shoppers, and Christopher & Banks was not immune to struggles with weak traffic in the third quarter.

The women's specialty retailer posted a net loss of $0.3 million, or 1 cent per share, for the third quarter ended Oct. 31, versus a year-ago profit of $9 million, or 24 cents per share. Net sales totaled $103.6 million, as compared to $110.6 million for the prior year. Same-store sales decreased 6.5%.

Target is back to its old marketing tricks in New York City this holiday season with a16,000-square foot omnichannel "spectacle” opening Dec. 9 next to Chelsea Market.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the holiday pop-up store "is filled with 10 holiday-themed displays that incorporate a digital element on top of an interactive physical experience. Each one is tied in to a popular holiday toy that Target is selling at the space."

Consumer packaged goods companies eager to keep pace with shoppers’ desire for product ingredient transparency have embraced a major initiative branded as SmartLabel.

SmartLabel is the name given to an initiative spearheaded by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) that is designed to give consumers easy access to detailed information on ingredients and hundreds of other product attributes, such as whether food items contain ingredients from genetically modified sources.

ICSC’s 2015 New York National Conference & Deal Making show is on track to set an attendance record, with approximately 10,000 dealmakers estimated at the event, outstripping the previous peak of 9,600 attendees set in 2014 and spurring the event’s planners to explore options for adding space in future years.

Ace Hardware Corp. is making sure that stores contain products local shoppers want, and plenty of them.

Ace is implementing JDA space and category management solutions, including floor planning, category knowledge base, Web publisher, and assortment optimization. This mix of solutions, which will complement an existing JDA footprint that includes space planning, warehouse replenishment, and demand and fulfillment applications, will ensure that the potential of scarce inventory and space assets is maximized.

Target Corp. has opened a 16,000-sq.-ft. space in New York that is part store and part holiday playground — and a testing ground for merging physical and digital retailing.