Omnichannel

All eyes are on J.C. Penney Co. as it rolls out the first wave of its branded shops to nearly 700 stores nationwide. 

New York -- A Wednesday report by the Wall Street Journal said that big retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp. and 7-Eleven are planning to develop a mobile payment network much like the Starbucks Square initiative that was announced last week.

By Steven Kramer, [email protected]

Fashion and apparel retailers are using multichannel retailing to augment the in-store experience for brand conscious shoppers. In the process, they’re delivering a compelling customer-centric expression of the retail brand that elevates the destination status of their physical stores.

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Shopkick, a shopping application that rewards shoppers for walking into stores and interacting with products, has teamed up with CVS/pharmacy to roll out a first-ever offering of walk-in and other rewards at a retail pharmacy, Shopkick announced on Tuesday.

The program kicks off with a special offer, kicking $5 back to shoppers who visit participating CVS/pharmacy locations with the Shopkick app. 

    

NEW YORK — Saks Inc. recorded a net loss of $12.3 million, or 8 cents per diluted share, for its second quarter. For the prior year second quarter, the company recorded a net loss of $8.4 million, or 5 cents per diluted share.

Pittsburgh -- Dick's Sporting Goods reported Tuesday that net income for the quarter ended July 28 slid to $53.7 million, from $73.8 million in the same quarter a year ago. The sporting goods retailer blamed the lackluster profit performance partly on weakness from newly acquired JJB Sports and adverse weather in the first quarter.

Sales climbed 10% to $1.4 billion, meeting Wall Street expectations. Same-store sales rose 3.8%, consisting of a 2.9% increase at Dick’s stores, a 4.4% rise at Golf Galaxy, and a 34.6% increase in its e-commerce business.

As a leading retailer, you know what your customer wants, and you’ve done the hard work of building the right assortment, sourcing from the right factories, and making it available in time for the season. Now you need to make sure that your customers can have what they want when they want it.   

The addition of new stores and a 3.8% same-store sales increase enabled Dick’s Sporting Goods to report record second-quarter results, so long as a botched investment in a leading U.K retailer is excluded.

Sale for the quarter ended July 28 increased 10% to $1.4 billion due primarily to a 3.8% comps increase combined with the addition of four new stores. The 3.8% increase consisted of a 2.9% increase at Dick’s Sporting Goods stores, a 4.4% increase at Dick’s Golf Galaxy stores and a 34.6% increase in the company’s e-commerce business.