Supply Chain & Merchandising

Sam's Club is looking to gain an edge over Costco by overhauling its already first-in-its-category buy online, pick up in store service to appeal to more business customers.

Stockholm, Sweden – Sweden-based global specialty apparel retailer H&M is planning to open its first store in India in fall 2015. The 25,000-sq.-ft. store will be located in New Delhi.

H&M, which currently operates more than 3,600 stores in 58 global markets, may open as many as 50 new stores in India during the next few years.

Costco reported a bump in U.S. same store sales for the month of May, but international comps declined.

New York – Same-store sales generally showed modest growth in May 2015, on the whole meeting Wall Street analyst expectations. The apparel vertical in particular generally outperformed analyst predictions, although Gap, Banana Republic and Zumiez all reported negative same-store sales growth.

Following is a review of May same-store sales by vertical:

Apparel
Banana Republic: – 5%
The Buckle: 2.4%
Gap: – 6%
L Brands: 5%
Old Navy: 6%
Stein Mart: 1.9%

The Michaels Companies overcame weak same store sales growth to deliver strong profit growth in the first quarter.

The Texas-based retailer reported that for the first quarter ended May 2 its net income increased to $67 million or 32 cents per share from $47 million or 25 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. Net sales for the quarter grew 2.4% to $1.08 billion from $1.05 billion in the same quarter last year. Same store sales increased by 0.3%.

Atlanta - Online shoppers frequently change retail channels during their shopping experience. According to the new Pulse of the Online Shopper study from UPS and comScore, better prices (57%) and selection (49%) are the top reasons for purchasing online after researching an item in-store.

Nearly half (48%) of online shoppers have used ship to store in the past year, and 45% of those consumers made an additional purchase when picking up their online purchase.

Irving, Texas – Net income at the Michaels Companies Inc. skyrocketed 47% to $67 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 compared to $45 million in the same quarter a year earlier. A large drop in interest expense helped fuel strong profit growth.

Net sales climbed 2% to $1.08 billion, from $1.05 billion. Same-store sales rose 0.3%. Michaels said unfavorable weather and a strong U.S. dollar hindered sales growth.

The CEO of Best Buy says brick-and-mortar stores are absolutely vital to beating Amazon.com and other retail rivals.

According to MPR News, Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly told students at the University of Minnesota that "the chain's roughly 1,400 U.S. stores allow the retailer to demonstrate new products for customers and deliver the goods faster than Internet-only merchants."

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