Supply Chain & Merchandising

Livonia, Mich. -- Pet Supplies Plus is looking to capitalize on the $58 billion pet industry.

The company, the nation’s largest pet retail franchise, announced that, so far this year, it has 19 new locations in the pipeline. Newly signed agreements will bring the neighborhood pet stores to new and underserved markets including Nashville, Atlanta, Houston, Jacksonville and Denver.
 

Columbus, Ohio -- Express Inc. soared in the second quarter as its profit tripled amid increased sales and profit margins and reduced promotional activity.

The retailer on Wednesday reported better-than-expected sales and profit for the second quarter. It also raised its full year outlook.

Express’ net income totaled $21 million, compared to $6.9 million, boosted by gross profit resulting from cost of sales growth that was significantly behind the rate of net sales growth.

Seattle – Tully’s Coffee is reveling in a new mobile POS capability.

More precisely, Tully’s has selected Revel's iPad POS systems to be deployed across 46 corporate stores located in the western U.S.

The lightweight Revel hardware decreases the amount of counter space used, connects to the cloud and seamlessly integrates with Tully's current Synergy loyalty platform. Tully’s can also track inventory, manage payroll and provide analytics in real time.

The Bon-Ton Stores is opening a new fulfillment center as the retailer looks to cut back on the amount of time it takes to deliver an online order.

The company announced the grand opening of its 743,000 square-foot state-of-the-art direct-to-consumer fulfillment center in West Jefferson, Ohio. The facility, which began transitioning fulfillment operations in June, was designed with the customer in mind and supports the company’s expanding e-commerce business and aggressive omnichannel growth, the company says.

New Albany, Ohio – Efforts to change its merchandising and branding paid dividends at Abercrombie & Fitch Co., which reported smaller net loss and revenue decline than expected in the second quarter of fiscal 2015.

Abercrombie reported a net loss of $810,000, compared to net income of $12.9 million the same quarter a year earlier.

Revenue fell 9% to $817.8 million, from $890.6 million.

New York – L.L. Bean continues to win top marks in overall customer service.

According to the latest quarterly Stella Service benchmarks, perennial high finisher L.L. Bean took top customer service honors in second quarter 2015. Following L.L. Bean were Mr. Porter, Shopbop, David Yuman and Net-a-Porter.

Recent turmoil in the stock market hasn’t dimmed Best Buy’s outlook for the third quarter while the release of better than expected second quarter results has validated the company’s strategy, according to CEO Hubert Joly.

Strength in categories such as major appliances, large screen televisions and mobile phones, offset by weak tablet sales, helped Best Buy achieve a 2.7% domestic same store sales increase and pushed revenues up 3.9% to $7.9 billion during the second quarter ended August 1. Online comparable sales increased 17%.

Secaucus, N.J. – Specialty apparel retailer The Children’s Place Inc. saw its net loss grow and net sales drop in a difficult second quarter of fiscal 2015.

Net loss increased to $13.7 million, from $10.7 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Higher selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses, as well as several non-recurring items including legal fees, impairment charges and restructuring costs, helped push The Children’s Place further into the red.