News

Soft Surroundings Pampers Customers
At a time when many retailers are cutting back on store expansion, Soft Surroundings is doing just the opposite, growing its retail footprint with a prototype that brings its brand experience to life. The women’s lifestyle brand, founded in 1998 as a catalog retailer, opened its first store in 2005. But it’s only been in the past couple of years that Soft Surroundings, which also has a thriving online business, has made a big push into brick-and-mortar. (In summer 2013, private equity firm Brentwood Associates took a majority interest — 55% — in the firm.)
SHOP TALK
RANDOM NOTES: The North Face puts its passion for adventure and the great outdoors front and center in its new flagship in London. Designed to inspire customers to explore the world, the 4,300-sq.-ft. store features skylights, live greenery, tree trunks that extend through the ceiling windows, and such tech enhancements as a virtual reality experience that takes viewers on a journey through Nepal. Digital screens (“sky windows”) set in the ceiling have imagery that reflects outside weather conditions.

Store Maintenance Concerns, Best Practices

A lack of skilled trade labor is one of the biggest challenges confronting both retailers and suppliers in the store maintenance area, according to Boss Facility Services’ Keith Keingstein and Kerri Keingstein, who spoke with Chain Store Age about industry trends.
TURNING WORKFORCE CONCERNS INTO OPPORTUNITIES

There is an increasing difficulty in maintaining a skilled technical workforce. As the current workforce ages, technical experts are harder to find and concerns arise around workforce costs.
Spotlight On Changing Regulations

In 2016, retail chains will continue to face increasing competition and high consumer expectations. Changing regulations will also impact retail businesses. We see the regulatory issues below as the most critical for the retail industry this year and beyond.
Election Year Maneuvers — Impact On Retailers

With 2016 upon us, many employers find themselves nervously awaiting what election-year politics might bring to their doorsteps. Retailers and restaurant operators, more than ever, have been thrust front and center into the political landscape, with labor issues at the top of candidate’s agendas as well as the subject of numerous ballot issues at the state and local level. As a result, the business models and labor practices of entry-level employers are being evaluated by the public in much the same way the candidates are.
Retailers Take Enterprising Innovation Approach

For many years, retail IT was dominated by a traditional “enterprise” model. Using a large, centralized physical server or database, retailers would deploy core business solutions. POS terminals and customer engagement applications primarily served as data collection tools to assist back-end enterprise operations.
The Road Ahead

Chain Store Age spoke to industry experts to get a sense of where four strong trends in retail technology — mobile payment, same-day delivery, Internet of Things and social commerce — are heading in 2016. We also offer a sneak peek at the burgeoning trend of visual search.
TOP 10 WOMEN IN TECH

Female executives take leading roles in retail IT arena

If a “leader” is someone who knows how to take charge, achieve goals and inspire others along the way — even in the most trying of circumstances — then the women featured in this special section are leaders in every sense of the word. They have toiled and proved their mettle — and smarts — in a field that traditionally has not been all that female-friendly: technology.
New Filters for Hiring CEOs

I remember something a retailer once said to me more than 25 years ago, long before digital mattered. It’s still true today: If the product’s not right, nothing matters. If the product is right, everything matters. That everything now includes staying ahead of the consumer digitally. We’ve gone from a generation that saw technology as a skill to one that doesn’t see it at all — it’s so natural it’s become instinct. This shopper lives in a world where digital doesn’t just define shopping habits — it defines the way shoppers live.
Bigger is Better for Lush

From its artisan-looking shops and grocery-styled product displays to its ethical sourcing and activist ethos, Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics has always marched to the beat of a different drummer.
CALL YOUR BANK

Good news for retailers: Banks are flush with money and eager to lend.

“Credit is more available than at any time since the great recession,” said Walter Simson, principal of Chatham, New Jersey, -based Ventor Consulting (ventorllc.com). “A more liberal lending environment has opened a window of opportunity for retailers to get more capital with less risk.”