News

Office Depot continues to hope its merger with Staples secures approval from U.S. regulators, but in the meantime the performance of its retail operations is looking much better should it remain an independent company.

Office Depot’s North American retail footprint did shrink to 1,564 locations at the end of the year after the company closed a total of 181 stores, including 56 in the fourth quarter. Thinning the herd a bit helped the overall profitability of Office Depot’s largest division during the period ended Dec. 26 even though sales declined.

Specialty vertical apparel retailer Perry Ellis International is solidifying its enterprise approach to the systems that support store processes.

Perry Ellis teamed with retail system integration and development services provider BTM Global to implement Oracle Retail Point-of-Service (ORPOS) v14 and Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management (SIM) v14 for its stores throughout the U.S.

Sharing detailed data with vendors is an idea that has been around since the 1990s, and is gaining new life at Ahold USA Inc.

Ahold, parent company of supermarkets Giant Landover, Stop & Shop New England, Stop & Shop New York Metro, Giant Carlisle, and online grocery Peapod, has partnered with Retail Solutions Inc. (RSI) to introduce shared enterprise business processes with vendors. Ahold USA has leveraged RSI’s data platform and collaboration tools to better align its business goals and daily priorities with its vendor partners.

When it comes to making online customers happy, one well-known name stands at the top.

Fourth quarter data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) shows Amazon.com led all online retailers with a score of 83.out of 100. Compared to the prior year, overall Internet retail customer satisfaction slipped 2.4% to a score of 80 out of 100. This still leads all other retail categories in the Index.

Boston has long been known as a town that likes to imbibe now and then, and online grocery delivery service Instacart is helping to spread the cheer.

Instacart is partnering with local omnichannel liquor retailer Vinodivino to offer Boston customers same-day delivery of wine, liquor, and beer. Vinodivino is now part of the Instacart marketplace, meaning Boston residents can order alcohol online from Vinodivino through the Instacart site or app and get alcohol delivered in as little as one hour.

A home improvement start-up with a green conscience and niche positioning is finally ready to expand out of its Austin, Texas, hometown.

TreeHouse will serve as the anchor tenant at The Hill, a new North Dallas shopping center being revived, refreshed, and repositioned by Dallas developer, Cypress Equities. The store, which will be designed by Lake|Flato Architects, is slated to open in early 2017. It will be the retailer’s second location, but perhaps not for long.

DSW has a robust store expansion plan in the works to tap future penetration within the U.S. market this year.

"New store growth is an important and exciting piece of the DSW formula. It allows us to bring the brand to more communities and build relationships with new customers. More stores also enable us to provide additional customers with immediate access to our full assortment. We look forward to engaging with these new customers and helping them find the perfect shoe at the prefect price," said Valara Gee, VP Stores

Hudson's Bay Company says online sales were particularly strong in the fourth quarter and contributed to the company's same-store sales growth of 11% for the period.

The Canadian firm and parent company of the Saks Fifth Avenue banners said that for the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31:

• Same-store sales grew 11%;
• The Department Store Group (DSG) had a same store sales increase of 4%;
• Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th same-store sales increased 2%;
• Saks Fifth Avenue same-store sales decreased 1.2%;