News

Coffee giant pulls the plug on online store
Starbucks Corp.’s online store has officially closed its virtual doors. The e-commerce site, which sold Starbucks’ branded merchandise — from mugs and coffee brewers to coffee, tea, and flavored syrups — shut down on Sunday, Oct. 1. The coffee giant decided to close the online store to focus on integrating its physical and digital channels, and to establish stores as destinations, according to Business Insider.
The modern case for mixed-use retail
We have a tendency to take things that have been with us forever, reinvent them, and give them new names. Mixed-use centers, for instance, are essentially the 21st century version of downtowns. But whereas America’s towns grew up organically alongside harbors, rivers, and transportation crossroads, mixed-use centers aren’t always able to be so logically placed.

Boston beckons

Marcus & Millichap’s Q2 Boston market report signals urgency to retailers like the famed lamps Paul Revere placed in the tower of the Old North Church. To wit:
Physical, digital … it’s all retail to me

As department stores continue to falter and Amazon continues to grow and the “Malls are Dead” headlines continue to proliferate in the general press, one glaring fact rears its head: We built way, way, way too many malls to begin with. Average retail square footage per person in America, by several accounts, is four times that of other industrialized nations like the United Kingdom and Japan.
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Winter facilities preparation

From parking lots and roofs filled with snow to sustained below-freezing temperatures, winter brings with it a long list of facility maintenance concerns for retailers. Here are some tips to ensure facilities are properly vetted for cold weather.
Sephora gets personal

Global beauty giant Sephora continues to disrupt the beauty category, rolling out new technologies — online as well as in store — and new formats. Its latest retail concept is positioned in the category’s fast-growing sweet spot: personalized customer services.
SPECS 2018 Update

Planning is underway for Chain Store Age’s 54th annual SPECS conference, which will be held March 18-20, 2018, at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine (Dallas), Texas. The event will have attendees that are retail and foodservice executives involved in the planning, design, construction and maintenance of stores and restaurants nationwide.
True Colors: Painting update

In remodels and new construction, paint is one of a retailer’s most effective design tools, both from a cost and overall appearance standpoint. Chain Store Age spoke with Jim Gorman, senior strategic account manager at Benjamin Moore & Co., who discussed trends and offered some advice on how retailers can get the most for their painting investment.

What are some of the trends you are seeing in retail and restaurant spaces in regard to the use of paint?
Toys ‘R’ Us testing AR to make stores digital playgrounds

Toys "R" Us is doubling down on its new brand positioning, “Today We Play.” The retailer announced it has begun testing an augmented reality app, called Play Chaser, in 23 stores nationwide, with a chainwide roll-out planned for Oct. 21. Developed in partnership with PlayFusion, the free app allows users to activate different AR mini games and play experiences on their smart device while in Toys "R" Us stores.
Five Common—and Costly—Omnichannel Mistakes

Brick-and-mortar retailers collectively have staked their claim online, accounting for at least half of U.S. e-commerce sales. The trouble is, most of them are losing money at it.
Omnichannel personalization

With more customer-specific information filtering into retail enterprises, brands are primed to deliver more personalized, seamless experiences. Such efforts not only drive repeat visits and purchases, but also “help retailers to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, and get closer to the customer,” said Tom Moore, industry lead of retail and hospitality at Zebra Technologies.