Store Systems

The nation’s capital has been added to the list of cities that will soon feature an Amazon Books store.   The newest Amazon Books location will reside in a 10,000-sq.-ft. space in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., The Washington Post reported. The store, which was formerly occupied by Barneys New York, will be Amazon’s 13th bookstore.   

An office supplies giant is taking steps to tighten up its data security strategies.   Staples named Brett Wahlin as its chief information security officer (CISO), responsible for global enterprise-wide information, product and data security. He will report to chief technology officer Faisal Masud, who leads Staples Digital Solutions, a new organization within the company that combines its traditional IT and digital organizations.  

Lenox knows what its shoppers like — and now it has a way to digitally display luxury products that specifically meet their tastes.    Inundated with a steady stream of new products, the giftware retailer needed a way to streamline its presentation of merchandise across digital channels, and still deliver an engaging customer experience. For Lenox, this included deploying the Oracle Commerce Cloud, an architecture that is modernizing the company’s omnichannel shopping experience.  

The nation’s largest retailer is introducing special financing for its credit cards that comes with an appealing hook.    The new offer provides no-interest financing plans for the Walmart Credit Card and the Walmart Mastercard Credit Card, with plans extending across either six months or 12 months on purchases. Similar to most plans, customers don’t pay any interest during the promotional period. But the Walmart offer is different from most others in that the interest also does not accrue during the promotional period.

Online plus-size fast-fashion retailer Eloquii is testing its first physical location, a pop-up shop in the Washington, D.C. area.  

Best Buy is extending its reaching into the fast-growing smart home market by teaming up with a company that makes and installs smart devices.      The retailer and Vivint Smart Home announced a partnership, called Best Buy Smart Home powered by Vivint, whereby experts from Vivint will be placed in Best Buy stores to give shoppers advice about smart home devices and installation. The program will start rolling out this summer.   

No two stores are exactly alike at Warby Parker. But its new store in Los Angeles — the eyewear brand’s 50th outpost to date — is more unique than all the others.    Located on Melrose Avenue, the new Warby Parker pays homage to Hollywood’s moviemaking history. It even has its own green screen studio where customers can create their own mini-movies.  

Despite retailer efforts to deliver information, store employees still struggle to access the information needed to complete tasks.    In fact, 75% of decision makers said their employees frequently ask about procedures that are documented, and 73% indicated that critical information is scattered across many disparate locations.