News

The National Retail Federation’s Big Show 2015 is a prime opportunity to demo the latest tech advancements from leading retail solution providers. The Oracle Retail team will be onsite with a small army of product experts, partners and customers to showcase its new 14.1 innovations, combined with powerful new functionality through the acquisition of MICROS.

To simplify retailers’ IT environments while helping them deliver the commerce anywhere experience consumers expect, Oracle unveiled enhancements to its retail portfolio with the launch of Oracle Retail Release14.1. This release builds on Oracle’s strategy for the combination of Oracle and MICROS, as well as its retail offerings in the cloud.

Founded in 2003, American jewelry brand ALEX AND ANI has cultivated a loyal customer following based on careful craftsmanship, an eye toward personalization, and reliable, seamless engagement in stores and online. Next, the retailer is upgrading its behind-the-scenes processes with Oracle Retail merchandising, planning, point of service, and warehouse management solutions.

Another January, another NRF “Big Show” in New York. The annual meeting officially kicks off on Sunday. Here’s my early take on what to expect from exhibitors at the show:

1. More Cooperation With Retailers

Union, N.J. – Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. beat Wall Street expectations for its third quarter net earnings even as they declined from the same quarter in fiscal 2013. Net earnings equaled $225.4 million, a 5% decline from $237.2 million.

An increase in selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses was a major factor in the net earnings drop. Net sales rose 3% to $2.94 million, from $2.86 million. Same-store sales rose 1.7%.
 

San Francisco – Gap Inc. should be happy to greet this year’s holiday season, based on its performance in the just-concluded 2014 holiday season. Net sales for the November and December 2014 holiday shopping season were up 4% and same-store sales were up 3%, compared with the previous year.

San Diego – PriceSmart Inc. reported mixed results for the first quarter of fiscal 2015, missing Wall Street expectations for net income but exceeding revenue forecasts. Net income totaled $20.65 million, down 4% from $21.43 million.

Higher income taxes and expenses drove the decline in profit. Total revenues fared better, growing 8% to $656 million, from $605.6 million. Same-store sales rose 1.5%.
 

Houston – Francesca’s Holding Corp. is still feeling the warmth of the holidays. The retailer is increasing its guidance for fourth quarter sales to between $103 million and $105 million, including a low-single-digit decrease in same-store sales.

King of Prussia, Pa. – EBay Enterprise is expanding its network of partnerships with a global program that will allow retail consultants and other partners to advise, design and integrate omnichannel commerce solutions and services from providers including Magento, Isobar, EPAM, Infosys, Bridge Consulting Group, AOE, Vaimo, and Gorilla.

Solutions and services offered include retail order management, store and warehouse fulfillment, and customer care. Global markets where services are offered include Europe, China and Latin America.
 

Cincinnati - Half Price Books has selected the PCMS Vision BeanStore POS system for its stores nationwide. PCMS is in the process of rolling out the system at all 117 Half Price Books stores.

Half Price Books selected PCMS over a number of competitive vendors due to the ability of PCMS to support the retailer’s unique inventory management requirements around the buying and selling of new and used books and other items.