News

The Kroger Co. on Tuesday announced a series of management changes.    The retailer said Bill Breetz, president of its Houston division, will retire effective Aug. 26. Breetz began his Kroger career in 1972 as a bagger in Louisville, Kentucky., and went on to hold several leadership positions at the chain.      Marlene Stewart, who currently serves as president of the company's Dillons division, will succeed Breetz.    

Wearable technology has a way to go before it becomes mainstream, but perhaps not as far as some observers think.  

Sonos, known for its “smart” sound systems, has made its bricks-and-mortar debut with an interactive store that celebrates music.     The store, in the SoHo section of Manhattan, is designed to allow visitors to listen to music — and experience Sonos products — the way they would at home. It also offers "Simple Set Up," a white-glove, in-home service that includes local delivery, set-up, and product introductions for in-store purchases.   

There are a limited number of retail apps a customer will use, and an app that is siloed has no chance of being one of them.   Cognizant of the need to ensure a shopping app is part of a larger, streamlined omnichannel environment, specialty online fashion retailer Bluefly is releasing a new app built on the Mozu commerce platform. With nearly 42% of its sales coming from mobile, Bluefly is offering several features designed to put the customer in the center of the shopping experience.  

When it comes to shopping via mobile app, consumers favor one retailer above all others.   Not too surprisingly, Amazon.com’s general dominance of digital retailing extends to the mobile app arena. According to new data from SurveyMonkey Intelligence, Amazon has more than 30 million monthly active users (MAU) of its mobile app in the U.S. This means about one in 10 Americans uses the Amazon app every month.  

The Tile Shop is on a roll.   The chain on Tuesday reported an 8.2% increase in same-store sales for the second quarter, along with a 20% reduction in new store buildout costs. The retailer also said it is launching an in-store and online tool that allows customers to personalize and visualize how an entire room or a distinct space will look upon completion of a project.  

Parents making back-to-school purchases are willing to open their wallets, if the price is right.   That’s according to a new study from digital savings platform RetailMeNot Inc., "Back-to-School Cheat Sheet: Consumer Trends and Insights for Retailers," back-to-school shoppers plan to spend an average of $273 per child, up from their anticipated spending of $246 in 2015.  

The Hershey Company is moving its popular store in Manhattan’s Times Square to a much larger location.   The company will unveil a new Hershey’s Chocolate World flagship at 20 Times Square in late 2017. The new store will be three times larger than the existing Hershey’s store, which has been a major tourist attraction since it opened in 2002. It will also feature even more bells and whistles, including a state-of-the-art digital billboard.  

The customer journey for The Yankee Candle Company Inc. has many potential steps, and the company is ensuring they are all connected and help bring shoppers closer to making a purchase.  

J.C. Penney and Sears are turning up the heat on one another in the appliance category — and that translates into good news for consumers.     Penney began rolling out expanded appliance departments to stores nationwide this past weekend, offering aggressive price cuts and other special deals, Fortune reported.