News

Toys “R” Us produced surprisingly strong results, especially online, in what is proving to be a holiday season characterized by mixed results from retailers who have disclosed results.

The Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset is slowly gaining popularity with retailers as a customer engagement tool, and an industry vendor is hoping to capitalize on the trend.

Location-based mobile platform Retale is releasing Retale Virtual Reality (VR) for Oculus Rift this year. Designed to be a VR, location-based shopping companion, it will provide an immersive, 3D environment where customers can shop context-based local offers.

In what was arguably one of the strangest holiday season in recent memory – for a variety of reasons – retailers have reported a variety of results ranging from impressive to outright awful.

Bellevue, Tenn. -- Crosland Southeast and Branch Properties have entered into a joint venture to acquire Bellevue Center Mall, an 87-acre property, located in Bellevue Tennessee. Crosland and Branch will collaborate to develop the retail component of the project and will rebrand the Bellevue Center Mall as One Bellevue Place. The projected costs for the redevelopment are approximately $200 million.

Toys “R” Us produced surprisingly strong results, especially online, in what is proving to be a holiday season characterized by mixed results from retailers who have disclosed results.

The Finish Line has promoted its president to CEO and plans to close a quarter of its stores as the retailer said supply chain problems hurt its third quarter performance.

The retailer announced that Sam Sato will succeed Glenn Lyon as CEO of The Finish Line, Inc., effective Feb. 28. Lyon will transition to the role of non-executive chairman of the board.

Consumers are changing the way they browse and shop for goods using mobile devices.

According to the State of Retailing Online 2016 study from Forrester Research, Shop.org and Bizrate Insights, growing use of smartphones by consumers, a shift in investments by technology companies and continued optimization strategies from retailers has landed smartphones on top as a driver of mobile sales and traffic for retail companies.

Photos: Sam Dushey before his appearance on “Undercover Boss,” (photo, left) and after he underwent his undercover transformation (photo, right). Via CBS.com