News Briefs

A regional Midwest convenience store chain is attempting to create a seamless omnichannel customer experience via its mobile app.

Earlier in August 2023, Kum & Go launched a new mobile app and rewards offering with support from Orium. The upgraded app leverages the Orium React Native Accelerator customer engagement solution  to combine ordering, payment, and loyalty into a unified omnichannel experience.

Leveraging the upgraded app, customers can now prepay for fuel, order customized food, browse deals, and get personalized recommendations. Members of the Kum & Go &Rewards loyalty offering can have all their transactions connected back into the program, so they can accumulate points to spend how they want.

The Kum & Go digital technology team worked with Orium to build out the accelerator, creating the foundations for mobile native composable experiences. a A composable architecture is a cloud-based collection of integrated, best-of-breed solutions that communicate with each other and act as a customized technology ecosystem.

"The new Kum & Go mobile app experience is a perfect example of how commerce, content, POS, loyalty and even fuel pumps can connect together to create incredible, truly omnichannel, customer-first experiences," said Ben Woll, Orium's VP client services. "This app truly has it all. And because it's grounded in composable commerce technologies, the customer experience will continue to evolve in tandem with the needs of the business."

Iowa-based Kum & Go, a family-owned convenience store chain which operates more than 400 stores across the Midwest and western parts of the country, is upgrading its app and loyalty experience as it undergoes expansion into new markets and acquisition by convenience store operator Maverik – Adventure’s First Stop and its parent company, FJ Management.

Pacsun is unifying its associate and customer experience with a new POS solution.

The specialty teen apparel retailer is implementing Manhattan Associates Active POS in an effort to enhance its omnichannel sales strategy and deliver a seamless, unified customer shopping experience. PacSun, which operates an online store and more than 300 stores nationwide, is adding the POS module to its existing Manhattan Active Omni Order Management implementation.

The retailer already leverages Manhattan Associates order management and store inventory and fulfillment solutions. By adding POS. the company is attempting to round out its omnichannel offerings and gives associates a single, intuitive experience across all in-store selling, engagement and fulfillment functions.

“The addition of Manhattan Active Point of Sale is a pivotal moment for PacSun as we solidify our position as a leader in unified commerce,” said Shirley Gao, CIO of PacSun. “We highly value the comprehensive and robust nature of the entire suite of Manhattan Active Omni solutions, including Point of Sale. This powerful application gives us access to advanced Omnicart capabilities, customer interaction insights, clienteling, customer-controlled fulfillment and endless aisle functionality to deliver an advanced omnichannel shopping experience to our customers.”

“With Manhattan Active Point of Sale in place, PacSun is well-positioned to continue its success as a leading fashion destination for both Gen Z and millennial shoppers,” said Bob Howell, executive VP of Americas for Manhattan Associates. “We are proud to support this innovative retailer, and we are delighted they chose our next generation point of sale solution

[Read more: Pacsun debuts new store concept at Mall of America — more locations to follow]

The design house renowned for its elegant and pricey wedding gowns has moved to a swankier section of New York City.

Vera Wang, whose headquarters for years resided on the north border of Madison Square Park, a few blocks up from the Flatiron Building, has relocated to 500 Park Avenue in Manhattan’s Plaza District--two blocks from Central Park.

The brand will occupy a 26,708-sq.-ft. space that takes up the entire 7^th floor of the former Pepsi-Cola  Building where Frato, a luxury furniture and interior accessories retailer, keeps its flagship showroom.

Vera Wang joins a roster of office tenants that happens to include premier-property retail real estate companies Friedland Properties and the Georgetown Company, the developer of Easton Town Center in Columbus.

The new location is surrounded by numerous restaurants, retail outlets, and cultural attractions and is close by the stop for the 4, 5, and 6 subway lines.

JLL vice chairmen Cynthia Wasserberger and Frank Doyle represented 500 Park’s ownership in the lease. Vera Wang was represented by Savills.

“As a boutique, high-touch asset, 500 Park Ave. remains one of the Plaza District’s statement properties,” said Wasserberger. “Its elegant and modernist design appealed to the tenant and the oversized windows hovering above Park Avenue allow for a light-filled working experience that complements the Vera Wang showroom design.”

Pedestrian traffic in American downtowns this July was 1.8% points higher than it was in June.  It’s the sixth consecutive month-over-month increase, though the smallest of the year so far, according to Springboard’s Downtown Pedestrian Traffic Report.

Big traffic declines took place on weekends (4.1% lower than in July) when city visits tend to be leisure-based and not work-related. Hot weather and thunderstorms in many markets likely stanched the flow, noted Springboard, a provider of insights on brick-and-mortar retail activity.

Between Monday and Friday, pedestrian traffic was 2.3% higher than it was in June and more than 5% higher than in June 2022.

Though July’s month-to-month traffic increase was modest at under two percentage points, its annual rise of 3.2% continued an upward post-pandemic traffic trajectory.

One notable exception occurred in the nation’s biggest downtown—New York City.

Pedestrian traffic there declined for the second straight month to 0.3% below June. Its weekend crowds dropped by 4.5%.

Design Within Reach (DWR) opened the doors to its 36th location this week in the City of Brotherly Love. 

The home decor retailer’s newest location opened on August 14 in Philadelphia’s Ardmore neighborhood. Ardmore is located in Philadelphia’s Suburban Square shopping district in the city’s storied Main Line region. The 4,200-sq.-ft. store, which is situated in a building built in the mid-20^th century, features original stone exterior, and is flooded with natural light from windows lining the perimeter of the space. 

A wide assortment of modern furniture and accessories are displayed in various room vignettes. Each section is designed to create a layered, aesthetically diverse residential environment that evolves as shoppers move throughout the space. The displays, which feature Postmodern, Bauhaus Industrial and Modern Pastoral-inspired themes, enable customers to easily visualize how pieces could fit into their personal spaces.

“Philadelphia is a dynamic city with a flourishing art and design community, and we are excited to bring DWR’s unparalleled offerings to the market,” said Debbie Propst, president of global retail for MillerKnoll, parent company of Design Within Reach. “When you pair our thoughtfully curated assortment with the expertise and high-quality complimentary design services from our account executives, the shopping experience at DWR Ardmore is truly unmatched.”

Design Within Reach, which was founded in 1998, is an omnichannel retailer. The company joined The MillerKnoll collective — a portfolio of 15 home decor and furnishings brands — in 2015. 

Retailers can expect a delayed back-to-school shopping season as shifts in consumer spending are affecting what, when and if consumers make purchases.

Discretionary general merchandise spending continued to decline in July, with a 4% drop in dollar sales and a 7% drop in unit sales compared to the year-ago period, according to Circana, formerly IRI and The NPD Group. The declines continued into the first week of August, with another 5% year-over-year decline in sales revenue and an 8% drop in unit sales. 

Overall retail sales revenue increased 2% compared to the same month last year. Unit sales declined 2%. Circana noted that the impact of elevated prices on demand was evident in CPG, with unit sales in July falling 1% and 3% respectively across edible and non-edible segments.

The established shifts in consumer spending behavior are resulting in a delayed start to the back-to-school shopping season, according to Circana.  The first week of August is traditionally a peak back-to-school shopping week. But this year, BTS general merchandise sales revenue slipped, falling below last year and pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

“Consumers are holding off on making some of their purchases, which will cause more of the back-to-school retail sales to occur after the traditional shopping period,”  noted Marshal Cohen, chief retail industry advisor for Circana.

Back-to-school shopping isn’t absent, he added, but the season will be late, with more sales hitting in late August, September, and even October.

“Retailers and manufacturers need to find the trigger points that will motivate the consumer to start to spend, despite reprioritization and the various economic challenges they are facing,” said Cohen.