Sales & Marketing

New York — Warby Parker, the hip eyeglass brand, has leased the iconic retail space on the southeast corner of the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street in the Upper East Side.

Winick Realty Group (www.winick.com) represented the landlord Samy Mahfar of SMA Equities in the transaction. Thor High Street Advisors represented Warby Parker.

New York -- Net-A-Porter.com topped all competitors across all retail verticals for customer service in February, according to Stella Benchmarks. The retailer was particularly strong in fulfillment, besting all other retailers in both shipping and returns.

Net-A-Porter.com provided a pre-paid, adhesive return label in all orders handled by StellaService analysts. In addition, Net-A-Porter.com issued refunds in less than a week on average.

Gigwalk, a leading provider of crowdsourced solutions to retailers and CPG companies, just surpassed the 500,000th member of its mobile workforce and celebrated the occasion by securing an additional $10 million in funding.

New York -- Express Inc. is opening its largest location in Times Square, N.Y. on March 25. The Times Square store is located in the landmark I. Miller building distinguished by its marbled frame and statues of iconic actresses including Marilyn Miller and Mary Pickford.

With more than 28,000 sq. ft., the location features imagery boxes, LED walls and screens, interactive iPads, mobile points-of-sale, and on-site charging stations to enhance the shopping experience.

Canton, Mass. -- Dunkin' Brands, the parent company of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, has signed a multi-unit store development agreement with new franchise group, BG&E Investments, to develop five Dunkin' Donuts restaurants and one Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin-Robbins combination location throughout East Texas. The first restaurant is planned to open in summer 2014, and the remainder by 2018.

Guess? may be a global brand, but worldwide diversification wasn’t enough to help the company avoid a fourth quarter sales decline and weakness at North American retail locations.

Unlike other retailers, Guess? made no mention of horrible winter weather when it reported a decline in fourth quarter sales and profits that were especially evident in North America.

Shelton, Conn. – Executive consumers seek easier ordering when they shop online. According to a survey of 50 high-level executives who attended the Microsoft Dynamics Convergence Conference March 4-7 by EDI and e-commerce integrator Logicbroker, nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents said that ease of ordering is the most important part of the online ordering process.

One-third (33%) said that better communication is the area that e-commerce companies have the most potential to improve.

Miami – Burger King Worldwide Inc. is reportedly planning to introduce a mobile payment app. According to the Wall Street Journal, Burger King will launch the smartphone app in select markets starting in April 2014 and will offer it in all 7,000 U.S. stores within a few months of initial rollout.