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And the award for the world’s largest in-store display goes to Procter & Gamble for an Olympic themed creation the consumer products company dropped in the aisle of a Walmart store in American Canyon, Calif.

South Jersey’s first Henri Bendel has opened at Cherry Hill Mall, located in Cherry Hill, N.J.

The PREIT-owned property now features a 2,300-sq.-ft. Henry Bendel designer fashion boutique, joining Nordstrom, True Religion, Hugo Boss, Michael Kors, Guess by Marciano, and more.

“As South Jersey’s fashion destination, Cherry Hill Mall continues to welcome venerable style icons to the property,” said Lisa Wolstromer, Cherry Hill Mall senior marketing director.

NEW YORK — Many retailers reported better-than-expected results in July as warm weather and clearance sales drew shoppers into stores. Thomson Reuters reported that three-quarters of retailers reported results beat expectations. Costco Wholesale Corp., Target Corp., Limited Brands and Gap Inc. all reported gains above expectations.

New York -- Helped by hot weather and clearance sales, many retailers reported solid results in July, a month that can be a tepid lead-up to the back-to-school shopping season.

Some of the strongest showings in the month were in the department store category, as those reporting all showed July gains.

Macy’s led the pack with a 4.1% same-store sales rise. Total sales increased 5.1% to $1.7 billion over the four-week period.

To understand what makes Target cool look no further than the Olympics.

Target doesn’t have any stores in London, the United Kingdom or Europe. Its first international stores won’t open until next year and those are located in Canada.

Online shopper engagement firm Jingit named former Walmart head merchant John Fleming to their board of advisors this week and offered a view of his career and accomplishments at Walmart that isn’t likely to jive with the recollection of suppliers.

“John pioneered countless initiatives throughout his stellar career at Walmart that took that brand to new heights in the market,” Jingit co-founder Joe Rogness said of Fleming.

By Dave Bruno, RedPrairie

Facebook. Twitter. ShopKick. iPhone. iPad. Android. Foursquare. SCVNGR. Cityville. Instagram.

The list of social, mobile, and now local apps, gadgets, games, and networks that have become part of most consumers’ lifestyles is virtually endless and all of them have demonstrated their ability to affect shopping behaviors. Consumers have issued a “SoMoLo” imperative. The critical question is how has retail responded?

The short answer? Not so great.

RESTON, Va. — Beauty brand L'Oréal USA is leveraging Clarabridge, a provider of sentiment and text analytics for customer experience management, to monitor what is being said in real time about its 27 brands across social media outlets, including website reviews, product reviews, blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

The move will enable L'Oréal USA to automatically route consumer insight to the right people and more effectively engage with its consumers.