Store Systems

Sears Canada Inc. is going all out with its plans for an in-store off-price shop.   The chain will unveil the dedicated shop, called The Cut, this spring, and plans to roll it out to all its 94 stores. The off-price concept launched its own e-commerce website last week.      The Cut will take up from 30,000 sq. ft. to 40,000 sq. ft. inside the stores and will be evenly split between apparel and home offerings, according to Women’s Wear Daily.       

The nation’s largest retailer is ready to put a whole new spin on merchandise fulfillment.   Speed is the name of the game in retail these days, in store and online.   

Target Corp. has unveiled its next-generation store format, which will make its debut in Richmond, Texas, a Houston suburb, in October.   In addition to the new 124,000-sq.-ft. Richmond store, 40 additional Target locations will receive elements of the redesign when they are updated, also in October.      

Pottery Barn customers in the San Francisco area will soon be able to see how a product will look in their home before they buy it.   The retailer, a division of Williams-Sonoma, will launch its first smartphone augmented reality app later this month. Called 3D Room View, the app is powered by Tango technology from Google. (It can be used only on Tango enabled smartphones.)   

Rouse Properties has divested itself of an 821,564 center in Eugene, Oregon, whose tenants include Target, Cinemark, Cabela’s, Kohl’s, Hobby Lobby, and Ulta. The Shoppes at Gateway was purchased by Balboa Retail Partners for an undisclosed amount.   “The Shoppes at Gateway is a thriving shopping center that drew significant investor interest," said JLL EVP Geoff Tranchina, who represented Rouse in the deal. JLL will continue on as the managing agent of the property.  

Converging channels, customization and constant connectivity are expected to change the shopping sector in the years ahead.   That is the main theme of a new study by Synchrony Financial, which examines consumer perspectives and shopping trends that are expected to change the retail industry by 2030.   “The future of retail will look dramatically different in 2030 than it does today,” said Whit Goodrich, CMO retail card, Synchrony Financial.  

Bolstered by positive consumer indicators, retail CFOs are largely optimistic for 2017. But competition and consolidation could cloud their outlook.    That’s according to BDO USA’s 11th annual Retail Compass Survey of CFOs, in which respondents predict a 4.9% bump in total sales this year, up from 3.4% in 2016. The bullish predictions are echoed by online sales projections, with a 10.7% increase expected for the year ahead — the highest in survey history.   

As the retail experience becomes increasingly digitally-influenced, retailers need a flexible point-of-sale (POS) system that can deliver a consistent brand experience at store level.    Nordstrom is taking steps to make this happen through a partnership with Infor to run POS in the cloud. Having a POS system in the cloud will give Nordstrom the tools to be more accurate and consistent across multiple locations, attend to customers more quickly, and better manage and track information, according to Infor.