Store Systems

New York -- The fast-growing Michael Kors has opened its largest and most comprehensive location to date, a three-story, 22,000-sq. ft. flagship in the Soho section of Manhattan. The store features the debut of the men’s collection in the brand’s own retail stores, with the first-ever in-store presentation of men’s shoes and and an entire floor dedicated to accessories, and the first dedicated Michael Kors shoe salon. Huge, floor-to-ceiling video screens, set on all three floors, help bring the products to life.

Discontinuing tobacco sales a year ago may have been the right thing to do for CVS Health, but the company’s fourth quarter results offer other retailers contemplating a similar move a glimpse of the short term impact on sales.

Non-pharmacy front of store same store sales at CVS Health locations declined 7.2% during the fourth quarter but would have registered a slight increase were it not for an 800 basis point negative impact associated with lost sale of tobacco and related products.

Washington, D.C. -- Mobile is the top priority for retailers in 2015, according to the 2015 Shop.org/Forrester Research Inc., State of Retailing Online, with 58% of surveyed retailers placing it at the top of their list, up from 53% last year.

The survey found smartphone sales as a percentage of online sales grew from 8% in 2013 to 12% in 2014, an increase of 50%. Tablets’ share of the pie also grew from 13% of online sales in 2013 to 16% in 2014.

Starkville, Miss. -- Camgian Microsystems announced today the closing of a new contract to deploy Egburt into the largest fred’s Super Dollar franchise group in the U.S. to provide company personnel with real-time actionable intelligence through the monitoring of equipment health and customer foot traffic.

Mobile and omnichannel are the top priorities for retailers this year, according to the 2015 Shop.org/Forrester Research Inc. State of Retailing Online report.

About 58% of the retailers by surveyed Shop.org and Forrester Research Inc. place mobile at the top of their list, up from 53% last year. 

Every time a retailer files for bankruptcy I am reminded of a harshly appropriate comment Jay Leno made in a monologue years ago after an icon of American retailing succumbed to market forces.

Montgomery Ward (remember them?), a company with an illustrious history that had a tremendous influence on the evolution of the retail industry, filed for bankruptcy in 1997 and was later liquidated.

Iselin, N.J. -- Birdzi, a provider of location analytics and mobile applications for personalized shopper engagement, announced that Woodman’s Foods, an independent and employee-owned grocery retailer with stores in Wisconsin and northern Illinois, is now a member of Birdzi’s Personiphi Network and has selected the company’s Shopper Engagement platform to provide personalized savings to shoppers.

After a rollout to one store in 2014, Woodman’s Foods will roll out the solution to all of its 15 stores by spring 2015.

London -- British women’s activewear brand Sweaty Betty plans to expand its presence in the United States. The London-based company has received a strategic growth investment from U.S. private equity firm Catterton. Sweaty Betty operates more than 40 stores in the United Kingdom, and two in the United States, where it also recently launched a website.