News

Pier 1 profit, sales down in Q4; looks to regain footing in 2016
Promotions, markdowns and supply chain issues took a toll on Pier in the fourth quarter as the retailer lower profits on declining sales. But the results were better than earlier projections and executives expressed confidence in the chain’s turnaround efforts.

Pier 1’s sales declined 1.4% to $542.3 million in the quarter ended Feb. 27; same store sales fell 0.6%. Net income was $18.7 million, down from $33.1 million in the year-ago period.
Accenture names former Oracle exec as head of retail
Jill Standish
Jill Standish has joined Accenture Consulting and been named senior managing director, retail. As the head of Accenture’s retail practice, Standish will focus on the business strategy and ongoing development and execution of retail industry strategy for clients. She will also manage the company’s retail industry client portfolio.

Accenture names former Oracle exec as head of retail

Jill Standish
Jill Standish has joined Accenture Consulting and been named senior managing director, retail. As the head of Accenture’s retail practice, Standish will focus on the business strategy and ongoing development and execution of retail industry strategy for clients. She will also manage the company’s retail industry client portfolio.
Pier 1 regains footing in 2016, eyes improved profits

Pier 1 shrank its store base and e-commerce penetration reached record levels during the company’s fourth quarter, a period in which profitability was marred by promotions, markdowns and supply chain issues.
Cheap gas doesn’t fuel sales in March

Even with fuel prices continuing to be low across the nation, U.S. retail sales were stagnant in March 2016.

According to advance data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, total seasonally adjusted retail and food services sales in the U.S. fell 0.3% to $446.9 billion compared to $448.2 billion in February 2016.

This continued shaky performance in 2016 that has included flat sales in February and a decline in January.
Tech Guest Viewpoint: Rethinking email in your store strategy

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” That’s a famous quote from the comic strip “Pogo” by cartoonist Walt Kelly. Popular during the 1960s, Kelly was commenting on how humans are often the cause of their own woes in the world. To which I would add retailers could just as easily say, “We have met the enemy, and it is email.”
Report: Walmart expands curbside grocery pickup

Customers in more cities will have an easier time shopping for the groceries at Walmart.
Walmart expands curbside grocery pickup

Customers in more cities will have an easier time shopping for the groceries at Walmart. According to Reuters, Walmart is rolling out free curbside pickup of online grocery orders to eight new cities, which will make the service available in about 200 stores in 30 metropolitan areas across the U.S. Additional cities offering grocery pickup will include Kansas City and Austin, Texas. Walmart COO Michael Bender said the retailer so far is gaining new customers and increased wallet share at stores where the service is offered and may roll it out further.
Publix names three new board members

Publix Super Markets added its soon-to-be CEO, current CFO and a retired Deloitte executive to its board of directors when the Southeast’s leading food retailer held its annual stockholders meeting on April 12.

Publix president Todd Jones, CFO David Phillips and retired Deloitte executive Jessica Blume were elected to the board of the $32.4 billion retailer.
Facebook wants to support your customer engagement

Retailers have long been interacting with customers via Facebook, but the social network is making a big push to become a full-fledged CRM platform.

Among the announcements Facebook made at its F8 developers conference this week was a beta release of its Messenger chat platform with bots and a new Send/Receive application programming interface (API).