Omnichannel

Warm weather was a problem for most retailers in the fourth quarter, but Houston-based Stage Stores also got hit by weakness in the energy sector and the Mexican Peso.

In fourth quarter 2015, mobile phones served as the primary engine of online retailing.

According to the fourth quarter “Demandware Shopping Index,” mobile phones were responsible for all growth in digital visit (112%) and basket (104%) size. Rates exceeding 100% indicate that digital visits and baskets actually shrank among users of tablets and PCs.

Mobile phones also accounted for a solid 68% of majority of digital order growth, with tablets and PCs accounting for the other 32%.

When it comes to marketing technology spend, retailers are overwhelmingly allocating dollars to a particular consumer touchpoint.

According to a new survey of more than 200 retail marketing executives from digital savings platform RetailMeNot Inc., "The Rise of Mobile Marketing Spend in Retail," 87% of retail marketers plan to invest more in mobile marketing in 2016.

In comparison, 73% of respondents plan to increase non-mobile digital advertising spend and 62% plan to increase their offline advertising spend.

Barnes & Noble produced a same-store sales increase in its third quarter which, although meager, is an impressive accomplishment given intense competition from Amazon. In announcing its results on Thursday, the company also revealed that it will open four new prototype stores in its current fiscal year. The first is expected to open sometime this summer.

Abercrombie & Fitch's efforts to attract more shoppers are paying off, as the company reported an increase in same store sales for the fourth quarter.

The teen retailer announced adjusted earnings of $1.08 a share for the period ended Jan. 30. Net sales were $1.11 billion. Same store sales jumped 1%, the first gain in overall same store sales since the third quarter ended October 29, 2011, according to Bloomberg.

American Apparel is looking to make the final step in the path to in-store purchase safer, easier and more efficient.

The specialty apparel chain is deploying a cloud-based payments infrastructure from retail software provider Index. Leveraging the Index Hosted Gateway and Semi-Integrated Payments solutions, American Apparel will obtain the ability to secure card payments at the POS with both point-to-point encryption (P2PE) and EMV authentication. This will validate the cardholder at the moment of transaction and then protect their data as it is processed.

Specialty online fashion retailer Rue La La is telling all the young dudes (or dudettes) about the latest in fashion with a new content site called Rue Now.

Building on the fact that the average Rue La La member visits the site more than twice a week for purposes of learning and discovery as well as making purchases, the retailer launched the Rue Now platform will complement its daily shopping boutiques by giving customers access to timely fashion and lifestyle news.

The Sports Authority on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it plans to close or sell as many as 140 of its 463 stores nationwide. The beleaguered company has struggled in recent years under increased competition not only from online players, but also from the likes of Dick’s Sporting Goods and specialty retailers such as Lululemon that have capitalized on the “athleisure” boom in fitness apparel.