Omnichannel

Amazon.com has been encroaching on Barnes & Noble Education’s collegiate bookstore business with a rapidly expanding network of campus pickup locations, but Barnes & Noble is striking back.
 
Fourteen colleges and universities have selected Barnes & Noble College as their partner of choice to operate their campus bookstores. The 14 new contracts represent 23 new campus and virtual bookstores. The schools represent a projected additional 140,000 students and their faculty.
 

Despite improved net sales, DSW Inc. saw net earnings decline substantially during the first quarter of fiscal 2017.
 
The footwear retailer reported net income of $30.01 million, down 37% from $47.37 million in the prior year quarter. Growing cost of sales and operating expenses, as well as a pretax expense from the February purchase of online footwear retailer Ebuys Inc., cut into profit even as net sales rose 4% to $681.27 million, from $655.47 million. Ebuys contributed $15.1 million in net sales.
 

Retailers will be excited by the prospect of employees that are never late and don’t need to take breaks or even be paid, but will customers accept them?
 

The store is making a comeback. Even online pure plays are laying down bricks and mortar, setting up “shop-in-shop” stores and large flagships to keep pace in the multichannel world.
 

Hotels have become a vital component of successful mixed use retail properties, something Robert Habeeb knows a lot about given his role as president and CEO of First Hospitality Group.
 

Photo: CVS Pharmacy President Helena Foulkes unveiled digital receipts in a surprise appearance on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live on Friday evening.

ModCloth, a San Francisco-based e-commerce retailer focused on vintage and independent apparel styles, has named Nicholas Genest as CTO.
 
Genest joins ModCloth with more than 15 years' experience across consumer, tech and online retail industries. He most recently served as the CTO for the online luxury consignment retailer The RealReal, where he strategically led the development of their mobile, web and data technologies since 2013.

A lot of retailers are making it easy for customers to shop in store with their mobile phones, but what about those pesky batteries?
 
Neiman Marcus is addressing the often forgotten Achilles heel of mobile commerce – the frustratingly short life of many smartphone batteries. The luxury chain is expanding a partnership with mobile charging station provider ChargeItSpot with a planned nationwide rollout that will result in 37 mobile phone charging stations installed across 30 locations.