News

LOS ANGELES — Guess has appointed former Victoria’s Secret executive Sharleen Ernster Lazear as chief design officer, overseeing all product categories for the Guess brands. She will report to CEO Paul Marciano. 

In the 18 months since I joined the National Retail Federation, I’ve been struck repeatedly by how rapidly our industry continues to evolve. As we all know, retail has always changed and adapted — and in just the past 20 years we’ve advanced from then-radical game changer Amazon.com to more recent models like Hointer, which boasts what amounts to online shopping in a store. 

BOSTON & ORRVILLE, Ohio — A collaboration between Life is good Company and J.M. Smucker Company will bring a line of coffee products to retail shelves throughout North America.

San Francisco — Mobile solutions provider Moovweb has added fashion retailer Charlotte Russe to its list of customers using its cloud-based experience platform.
 

E-commerce was labeled Walmart’s next growth engine by Neil Ashe, the retailer’s president and CEO of global e-commerce during an investor presentation Wednesday morning.

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — OfficeMax has launched a new search engine with content and navigation improvements on its OfficeMax WorkplaceSM business-to-business e-commerce site, OfficeMaxWorkplace.com. Since phasing in improvements last month, all aimed to deliver a streamlined online shopping experience, the site has experienced increases in conversion rate, average revenue per visit and positive customer feedback.

El Segundo, Calif. -- Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp. reported upticks in net income, sales and same store sales for first quarter fiscal 2013. Net income grew from $156,000 to $7.5 million.
     
Net sales were $246.5 million, up from $218.3 million a year earlier, while same-store sales rose 10.5%. First quarter sales improved despite the negative impact of the calendar shift of the Easter holiday, when the retailer’s stores are closed.
       

Social shopper media firm Collective Bias may have been founded in Walmart’s home town of Bentonville, Ar., but the firm has big plans to help suppliers to Target achieve their social media objectives.

Collective Bias established a presence in Minneapolis last year and more recently tapped Kristen Brown to lead the firm’s growth efforts. Brown spent five years with NPD in the company’s Minneapolis office where she served as retail insights director. She is also a best-selling author and motivational coach.