News

David’s Bridal gets personal with advanced digital analytics

There are few events more personal in a woman’s life than her wedding.

GameStop uses beacons to put customers in charge of store promotions

Retailers often use in-store beacons to push promotions to customer mobile phones as they pass by. But video game retailer GameStop Corp., which operates more than 4,200 U.S. stores, takes a different approach.

“In the store, we have multiple pieces of signage marking the location of beacons,” said Charlie Larkin, senior director of GameStop Technology Institute, the retailer’s in-house IT development center.

Tom Lichford, VP retail technologies, NRF, recommends retailers seeking to achieve compliance with upcoming October 2015 EMV mandate take the following five steps:

1. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE: “No matter what, start with customer experience,” advised Litchford. Retailers need to determine such factors as whether they will use self-service or traditional POS, customer prompts and screen displays, and how checkout speed will be impacted.

The upcoming Oct. 1, 2015, mandate for U.S. retailers to adopt POS systems that can securely accept and process transactions using EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa)-compliant, chip-based payment cards is fast approaching. Retailers that are not in compliance with the mandate after that date will be held liable for any fraudulent transaction committed with a chip-based card.

Bauer Hockey: Ice hockey equipment manufacturer Bauer Hockey is throwing its puck in the retail arena. The company will open its first-ever store this summer, in Burlington, Massachusetts, followed by a second location in the fall, in the Minneapolis area.

From international brands dropping anchor on U.S. shores and online players expanding in the physical space to familiar names with new formats and traditional start-ups, there is no lack of new concepts in the brick-and-mortar arena. Here’s a look at some with the biggest buzz.

TreeHouse

An Austin, Texas-based home improvement retailer with a green conscience and niche positioning is ready to branch out. TreeHouse opened in late 2011 in Austin’s Westgate Shopping Center, and has been thriving ever since.

Pittsburgh – GNC Holdings Inc. demonstrated some weakness during the first quarter of fiscal 2015 with shrinking profit and revenue. Net income dropped 9% to $63.27 million from $69.9 million a year earlier, driven by rising selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses.

Net revenue fell slightly to $670.25 million from $674.46 million. Same-store sales decreased 4.1% in domestic company-owned stores (including GNC.com sales). In domestic franchise locations, same-store sales decreased 1.5%.

Austin, Texas - Whole Foods Market and Instacart are partnering to make it more convenient to show Mom how much you love her this Mother’s Day. Using the Instacart service, Whole Foods will deliver flowers in as little as one hour across 15 major U.S. metros, along with a selection of other gifts.

Watsonville, Calif. – West Marine Inc. slightly shrunk its net loss to $10.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 from $11.4 million in the same period a year earlier. Cost of goods sold and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses combined to total more than net revenues.

Camp Hill, Pa. – Same-store sales increased 3% in April 2015, compared to the same month a year earlier. April front-end same-store sales, which were negatively impacted by 0.9% due to a shift in the timing of Easter, decreased 0.5%.

Pharmacy same-store sales, which included an approximate 1.45% negative impact from new generic introductions, increased 4.6%. Prescription count at comparable stores increased 1.8% from the prior-year period.