Omnichannel

The Tile Shop is entering the most populous metropolitan market in Texas   The specialty retailer of manufactured and natural stone tiles has opened its first store in the Houston market, in the suburb of Webster. Throughout 2017, The Tile Shop will open several other stores in the greater Houston area, including a second location in mid-August, in Sugar Land. With the two Houston openings, the retailer will have a total of 132 stores in 31 states and the District of Columbia,   

Amazon’s investments in the shoe business are paying off.   While 2017 is not even close to over, it is shaping up to being a strong year for shoes on Amazon. The company has already experienced 18% growth year-over-year during the first two quarters, alone. For 2016, Amazon had a total of 35% year-over-year growth, according to a study by One Click Retail.   

A furniture e-retailer is putting its augmented reality-based app into more shoppers’ hands.   Wayfair’s AR application, WayfairView, has been integrated into its mobile shopping app on the newly released ASUS ZenFone AR. The smartphone, which launched on Thursday, is equipped with Google’s Tango AR platform.  

Sugarfina is looking to expand its luxury candy offerings, online and in stores.    The company announced it has closed a $35 million growth equity financing from Great Hill Partners, bringing Sugarfina's total funding to over $50 million. The new funding will be used to continue scaling the brand across retail, digital, wholesale, and corporate gifting, and to expand internationally to the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Sugarfina will begin its overseas expansion in early 2018.  

The ax has fallen at Bed, Bath & Beyond as part of the realignment of its .store management structure.    The retailer said it has initiated in approximately half of its U.S. Bed Bath & Beyond stores and about a dozen of its buybuy Baby stores a limited realignment of its store management organization that will result in the elimination of about 880 department and assistant store manager positions.   

Costco Wholesale Corp. turned in a winning performance in July, fueled by strong traffic trends.   The company reported that its net sales in July rose 8.8% to $9.41 billion, compared to $8.65 billion during the similar period last year. Total company same-store sales rose 6.2%, with a 6.0% increase in the U.S. Excluding the impacts from changes in gasoline prices and foreign exchange, total same-store sales rose 5.3%, and 5.5% in the U.S.   

Virtual reality shopping is here and consumers — or at least the ones that are tech-savvy — are ready to use it.   Seventy to eighty percent of "early tech adopter" consumers are eager to use virtual commerce technology to design rooms, customize products and shops with friends from across the globe, according to a study from L.E.K. Consulting.   

Walmart’s grocery pickup service is available to even more shoppers in the Golden State.   The discounter introduced grocery pickup in 26 stores across Inland Empire, Los Angeles and San Diego, bringing the total number of stores statewide offering the service to 36 locations, according to The Orange County Register. Each store will designate parking stalls for shoppers to retrieve their groceries.