Omnichannel

Columbus, Ohio – DSW Inc. beat Wall Street expectations with first quarter profits that were aided by a reduction in clearance-priced merchandise. Net income in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 rose 22% to $47.37 million, from $38.64 million a year earlier.

Net sales grew 9% to $655.49 from $598.95 million. Same-store sales improved 5.1%.

Zaandam, Netherlands – Global grocery conglomerate Ahold N.V. had a successful first quarter of fiscal 2015, reporting growth in overall net income and in U.S. market share. Net income more than quadrupled to $230.74 million from $54.16 million, aided by the elimination of discontinued operations from the same period a year earlier.

Carpinteria, Calif. – America’s love affair with credit cards continues heating up. According to The Nilson Report, purchase volume at merchants for general purpose-type consumer and commercial credit, debit, and prepaid cards issued in the U.S. totaled $4.91 trillion in 2014, up 8.4% from 2013.

Credit cards increased their market share in purchase volume compared to debit and prepaid cards to 53.59% in 2014, up from 52.95% in 2013.

Ann Arbor, Mich. - Domino's Pizza has announced several key internal leadership appointments and promotions, including naming Joe Jordan, 41, as VP and chief marketing officer.

Jordan has been with Domino's since 2011 when he began serving as the VP of marketing innovation. Most recently, Jordan was VP of field marketing where he spearheaded the realignment of interdisciplinary resources to better support franchisees at the local level. Prior to Domino's, he held marketing roles at Accenture, Philips, Unilever and PepsiCo Inc.

Los Angeles - Forever 21 Inc.’s social strategy has always been to mix compelling and creative branding with the ability to directly purchase items. Working with Philadelphia-based visual social media marketing company Curalate, the fast-fashion retailer has taken that strategy to new heights by allowing customers to buy goods from its Instagram page.

“Curalate helped us turn what was a purely branding tool into a revenue driver,” said Mario Moreno, global social media manager marketing, Forever 21, Los Angeles.

Manchester, U.K. - Global online fashion retailer Boohoo has selected cross-channel marketing attribution software company Visual IQ, to provide marketing attribution management solutions across TV and digital channels in support of its 2015 growth initiatives. Boohoo leverages a number of traditional, digital and mobile channels to connect with consumers.

New York -- Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th will open its first metro downtown store, on Market Street in downtown San Francisco. The new 40,500-sq.-ft. store will celebrate its grand opening on May 28.

“This store is the first Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th store in a city center, and we believe San Francisco is an ideal location as we begin to expand into metropolitan markets,” said Jonathan Greller, president of outlets, Hudson’s Bay Company, parent company of Saks.
 

Reports of the death of brick-and-mortar stores have been greatly exaggerated. How else to explain the throngs of shoppers still crowding physical stores in the major shopping districts of the U.S., especially over the weekend at H&M's grand opening in New York?