Store Systems

Columbus, Ohio -- Casto announced that it has been selected by Edwards Communities Development Company to lease the retail component of The Highline at Nine, Edwards new mixed-use project located in Columbus, Ohio.

The retail development is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2017. Located on the doorstep of The Ohio State University’s South Campus and the northern edge of the Short North Arts District, The Highline at Nine will include approximately 22,000 sq. ft. of prime retail and restaurant space along with 480 student housing beds.

For a pizza retailer like Domino’s Super Bowl Sunday is the equivalent of Black Friday in terms of omnichannel traffic and order volume.

During the 2016 Super Bowl, Domino’s experienced considerably higher than usual order volumes across all channels - social, mobile, Web and in-store payments. Yet Domino’s avoided the embarrassment of any slowdown in order processing (as well as the Noid) in any channel.

Fabletics, the athleisure brand co-founded by actress Kate Hudson in 2013, continues to expand in the physical space.   The e-commerce retailer, which opened its first brick-and-mortar outpost in 2015, plans to open 12 stores in 2017, giving it a total of 30 locations throughout the continental United States in just 23 months.       

Kirkland's says weather kept shoppers away from stores in January, but the home furnishings retailer still reported a slight increase in same-store sales for the fourth quarter.

For the fourth quarter ended Jan. 30, net sales increased 11.4% to $199 million compared with $178.7 million for prior year quarter. Same-store sales, including e-commerce sales, rose 1.3% compared with an increase of 8.2% in the prior-year quarter. Kirkland's opened 12 stores and closed six during the fourth quarter, bringing the total number of stores to 376 at quarter end.

While rumors of Amazon launching a chain of physical bookstores seem to be exaggerated, there is no question that pure-play retailers are beginning to make inroads into the brick-and-mortar channel. Over the past couple of years, e-tailers as diverse as Warby Parker, Bonobos and Birchbox have not only opened stores, but committed themselves to expanding in the space.

Here are a few good reasons for virtual enterprises to consider selling items in a “real” environment.

Buy Online, Pickup at Your Store

We often talk about how to avoid, deter and block bots. But much opportunity lies in figuring out how to distinguish between good and bad bots, and to understand how the distinctions change across applications and environments, especially within the retail industry.

Retailers may find themselves banished to the Island of the Misfit Toys if they do not improve their handling of returned holiday purchases.

According to new data from Kurt Salmon, it took an average of 13.3 days for retailers to credit returns to accounts during the 2015 holiday season. This marked an improvement from the prior year’s 16.8 days, but still far from customers’ expectation of about seven days.