Sales & Marketing

For the second year in a row, Sports Authority said most of its stores would open at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving Day.

Aventura, Fla. -- In another move to capitalize on its extensive real estate portfolio, Sears Holdings Corp. has submitted plans to the City of Aventura in Florida for the redevelopment of the Sears property at Aventura Mall into an open-air village that will feature retail, restaurants, offices and a hotel.

 

At a time when physical books are becoming an alien concept for younger consumer, Barnes & Noble has introduced a new ad campaign that positions books as, “a gift like no other.”

Plug and Play brings together retailers and start-ups that offer specific technology and expertise that can relieve merchants’ pain points. Chain Store Age’s Customer Disruption newletter provides a Q&A with the CEO of one of those companies in each issue. This time, the spotlight is on John McIntyre of Sightly.   What does Sightly do?  

Washington -- The Association for Retail Technology Standards, a division of the National Retail Federation, on Monday announced the approval of the ARTS Operational Data Model version 7.0, and the ARTS Data Warehouse Model 3.0.  

Minneapolis --The competition for the holiday shopper continues with the news that Target Corp. is kicking off the holiday season extra early this year, with plans to offer early access to Black Friday deals for one-day only on Nov. 10, a pre-sale on Nov. 26, and a 6 p.m. store opening on Thanksgiving evening.

Stride has developed a new app called RiteFit that allows an iPad to be used as a device to accurately determine a child’s shoe size.

Austin, Texas -- Gen Y consumers, whose annual spending power is estimated at $200 billion, prefer to shop at retailers that offer financing options, according to a new study.   An eNation study of more than 2,000 consumers, commissioned by financial technology company NewComLink, found that 59% of shoppers between the ages of 18 and 34 say their choice of retailer is impacted by whether that retailer offers financing options.