Data & Analytics

Chain Store Age recently visited Wayfair Next, the in-house innovation lab in the Boston headquarters of online home furnishings retailer Wayfair Inc.

Steven Conine, co-founder of Wayfair and Mike Festa, director of Wayfair Next, discussed the lab’s mission and the importance of innovation in retail.

Apple is training the next generation of coders — in its stores.   The company is expanding its Apple Camp workshops to include a course designed to teach children the basics of coding, Techcrunch reported.   The “Coding Games and Programming Robots” course, open to children ages 8 to 12, will also allow kids to program Sphero robots.   

The Las Vegas City Council has approved a new master plan for the gambling mecca’s Downtown district, focusing on both historic attractions and new development to drive more traffic there. The plan was developed under the direction of RTKL, an architecture and urban design firm whose completed projects include Mirdif City Centre in Dubai and L.A. Live.  

H&M isn’t letting a weak second quarter performance stand in the way of its ambitious expansion plans.   The Swedish retailer’s profit in the quarter, which ended May 31, fell 17% to 5.357 billion Swedish kronor ($649.6 million), according to MarketWatch, as unusually cool weather dimmed sales of spring clothing and a strong U.S. dollar added to its costs. The strong dollar will have a negative impact on purchasing costs for the third quarter and a neutral effect in the fourth, the chain said.  

Without a store base to support any fulfillment, pure-play home improvement retailer Build.com lives and dies by efficient product shipping.   Further complicating the retailer’s efforts to provide quality shipping while maintaining reasonable internal costs is the nature of its product assortment.  

Boots, the U.K.-based pharmacy and beauty retailer, and IBM announced that Boots has launched Sales Assist, an IBM MobileFirst for iOS app, across its U.K. stores to make it easier for customers to find the products they need.   Sales Assist is one of the 100-plus enterprise-focused apps that IBM has produced in collaboration with Apple for iPhone and iPad, aimed at a range of specific industries and professions.  

With all the attention placed on cybercrime, it is easy to overlook the threat posed by old fashioned shoplifters and dishonest employees.  

Specialty apparel retailer Lands' End is making a number of new executive appointments in the marketing and merchandising areas of the company.