News

Leading beauty and grooming e-commerce company Birchbox is preparing to open its first brick-and-mortar store in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood.

The store will feature a curated product assortment that includes 2,000 products from 250 brands including Smashbox, Caudalie, Jouer, Supergoop!, Cynthia Rowley, Baxter of California, Lab Series and Art of Shaving. Testers of every product in the store will be available.

Sales and marketing services leader Crossmark unveiled a first-of-its-kind collaboration center on July 10 just steps from Walmart’s Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters. The new facility offers the retailer and its trading partners a wide range of joint business planning, shopper insights and store execution capabilities.

Lumber Liquidators doesn’t report its second-quarter results until July 31. But reduced customer traffic along with weak macroeconomic trends related to residential remodeling and a drop in home sales have prompted the company to revisit its outlook for the quarter and full year.

The company’s net sales for the quarter increased 2.3% to $263.1 million, from $257.1 million in the prior-year quarter. At comparable stores, however, net sales decreased 7.1% for the quarter, in comparison to an increase of 14.9% for the second quarter of the prior year.  

New York -- Uncertainty at the West Coast ports has caused a rush of activity, according to a monthly tracking service.

Import volume at major U.S. container ports is expected to total 1.5 million containers this month, says the Global Port Tracker from the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. That’s the highest monthly volume in at least five years and follows a trend of unusually high import levels that began this spring as labor strife pushed retailers to import merchandise ahead of any potential problems.

Chicago – Understanding shopping and buying behavior is the most common challenge facing retailers. According to a survey of nearly 200 retailers, executives, financial analysts, industry analysts and university academics at the recent ShopperTrak users group conference, 44% of attendees reported that understanding consumer behavior in-store is currently their biggest challenge.

Boston – Wayfair is launching program integration on HGTV shows including "Brother vs. Brother" and "Flipping The Block." This integration is part of a broader partnership, which through program integration and daily sales events on Wayfair.com, lets consumers shop directly from HGTV shows.

New York -- Women’s apparel retailer Bebe has selected digital experience management platform provider Qubit to provide a wide reaching and bespoke A/B testing, website optimization and personalization program designed to increase conversion rates.

While Bebe retains a strong physical store presence in prime locations globally, the retailer is now looking to establish itself as an ecommerce market leader by honing its online and mobile strategy — a plan that will kick off with the launch of a new responsive mobile site in the coming weeks.

Dallas - 7-Eleven is celebrating its 87th birthday with eight days of free offers, beginning July 11. To receive each day's free offer, a customer must first download and register on the 7-Eleven app.

A customer opens the 7-Eleven app at the store and shows the member barcode to the sales associate at checkout. The barcode appears below the coupons. Once the associate scans the barcode at the register, the customer will receive the item as they check out.

Richmond, England - Sirma Solutions JSC is releasing Loyax, a white label loyalty platform. Loyax provides businesses with reporting and analytics designed to enable companies to understand their customers and offer personalized rewards based on customer buying behavior.

By Mark McCurley, IDT911 Consulting