Supply Chain & Merchandising

Plug and Play brings together retailers and start-ups that offer specific technology and expertise that can relieve merchants’ pain points. Chain Store Age offers a Q&A with the head of one of those start-ups, Wibe Wagemans, president of Palo Alto, California-based IndoorAtlas.

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Home goods and Sephora helped J.C. Penney turn a page on the ongoing story of its story of transformation by exceeding top-line growth expectations in the third quarter.

For its third quarter ended Oct. 31, the company cut its loss by 27% to $137 million, or 45 cents a share. It reported net sales of $2.90 billion, compared to $2.76 billion in the year-ago period. Same-store sales increased 6.4%.

Target Corp. is bringing its smaller-sized, urban format to one of lower Manhattan’s trendiest — and wealthiest — neighborhoods.

The retailer will open an approximately 45,000-sq.-ft. store on Greenwich Street in Tribeca, near Battery Park, a fast-growing and affluent residential area, and the Financial District.

The two-level store is scheduled to open in October 2016. It is located in a 14-story, 625,000-sq.-ft. mixed-use building, whose landlord is Jack Resnick & Sons.

Home goods and Sephora helped JCPenney turn the page on the next chapter of its story of transformation by exceeding top-line growth expectations in the third quarter.

For its third quarter ended Oct. 31, the company reported net sales of $2.90 billion compared to $2.76 billion in the third quarter of 2014. Same store sales increased 6.4 % for the period. JCPenney cut its loss by 27% to $137 million, or 45 cents a share. Total sales increased 4.8 percent to $2.9 billion versus $2.76 billion last year.

The holiday promotion season is fast approaching with the arrival of Thanksgiving and Black Friday. From that moment the race is on for customer dollars through to the New Year. We’ve all been through this many times, and it seems like no sooner has one season finished than we are shortly into planning for the next. But what impact are the prices we set having on customer behavior and the profits of retailers?

Advance Auto Parts announced its CEO is stepping down as the retailer also reported a decline in third quarter profit and nearly flat same-store sales.

The auto parts retailer reported that for the third quarter ended Oct. 10, same-store sales increased .5%. Profit declined 1.4% to $120.5 million, or $1.63 per share. Revenue ticked up slightly to $2.3 billion.

The “digital revolution” has turned the traditional retail marketplace upside down. Consumer expectations continue to rise and the Internet has broken down borders and created a global marketplace, dramatically increasing competition.

Musicians are notoriously individualistic people, and specialty instrument retailer Guitar Center is launching a redesigned website with this user base in mind.

Westlake Village, California-based, 270-store Guitar Center has launched a new redesigned website with a more seamless omnichannel user interface. Based on the current Oracle Commerce platform, the redesign is the result of a two-year initiative that involved customer insight and user experience teams, both of whom worked together with end-users and consultants.