Supply Chain & Merchandising

Omnichannel retailing — or as it is increasingly known, “retailing” — is complex and can increase costs for retailers. Here are a few ways retailers can improve store-level fulfillment to increase both profits and customer service.
 

E-commerce has reached a new high at Dick’s Sporting Goods, but that doesn’t mean the nation’s leading sporting goods retailer is backing away from store expansion.

Unlike many of its department store peers, The J.C. Penney Co. Inc. is not planning any major store closings. Instead, Penney CEO Marvin Ellison told Fortune that the company sees stores as an integral part of an omnichannel strategy that will include offering buy online pickup in store functionality in time for back-to-school season. [Fortune]

Photo: Greg Foran, Walmart U.S. president and CEO

Whole Foods Market has partnered with national solar providers NRG and SolarCity to substantially increase the number of rooftop solar units on the company’s U.S. stores.

The retailer aims to install up to 100 additional solar rooftop units on its stores. If the goal is reached, the project has potential to be among the 25 largest commercial rooftop solar installations in the country.

Sport Authority’s decision to file bankruptcy is contributing to one of its suppliers making a major downward revision to a 2016 profit forecast.

Performance Sports Group, a supplier of team sports equipment under the Bauer and Easton brands, slashed its profit forecast for the current fiscal year by 55 cents to a range of 12 cents to 14 cents from a range of 66 cents to 69 cents. Nine cents of the shortfall was attributed to anticipated losses from “a U.S. national sporting goods retailer that has filed under chapter 11.”

Specialty grocery delivery service Wholeshare takes what might be called a “democratic” approach to offering customers online access healthy food products.

“We let consumers buy natural and organic food as a group at wholesale prices,” said Matt Hatoun, co-founder of San Francisco-based Wholeshare. “We cut out the supermarket or natural foods store. We go to the same wholesalers they use.”

Knowing when things are right is important, but knowing when things are wrong may be even more vital.