News

Eloquii’s Fast-Fashion Take on Plus Sizes
Fast-fashion for plus-sized women: That’s what eloquii.com is on a mission to deliver. While a retail format that offers runway-inspired looks for shoppers sized 14 to 24 is a no-brainer, the concept is practically radical in fast-fashion retailing.
Nielsen: North American consumer confidence up in Q3
New York -- Consumer confidence in the North America region improved four points to 107 on the Nielsen Consumer Confidence Index for the third quarter of 2014. Consumer confidence levels above and below a baseline of 100 indicate degrees of optimism and pessimism, respectively, with the latest results reflecting an outlook of cautious optimism.

Gap Raises Bar on Digital With New CEO

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Survey: Retailer use of social media for product development grows 550%

Boston -- The current use of social media data by retailers for merchandise planning is limited, with only 39% using it for product development and only 35% using it for promotional planning.
From Paris with love

Glamour girl and a fashion mogul Paris Hilton has created a new fragrance to add to her $2 million fragrance portfolio. A new scent With Love, Paris Hilton is dedicated to Hilton’s fans around the world.

From the scent to its gracefully designed bottle, With Love, Paris Hilton explores Hilton’s more sophisticated side, according to Harry Fremont, the perfumer of Firmenich fragrance house who created this new addition to Hilton’s fragrance collection.
(Please Don't) Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Like an inconsiderate party guest, Old Man Winter arrived early this year, bringing his trusty cohorts snow, ice, wind and rain. The first official day of winter is still a month away, but many parts of the United States are feeling the freeze, especially in the Northern Plains, where snow fell 11 days before summer officially ended. If that is any indication of the upcoming season, retailers could be in for a long and brutal winter.

Winter Forecast

For many, winter is a magical time of the year.
PwC: Retail and consumer mega deals hits seven year high in Q3

New York -- Retail and consumer merger and acquisition activity in the United States during the third quarter of 2014 was driven by the highest volume of mega deals (deals with a value of over $1 billion) in at least seven years, leading to overall transaction value jumping significantly during the quarter when compared to the year ago period, according to PwC’s U.S. retail and consumer deals insights Q3 2014 report.
A big change for retail’s Big Show

The National Retail Federation has made a major change to the format and content of its annual trade show and convention, known as the Big Show, which is held every January in New York.
IDC Retail Insights: Top 10 retail predictions for 2015

Framingham, Mass. -- By 2017, three times as many retailers as now will explicitly underpin their customer and operations strategies on 3rd platform technologies. That’s one of IDC Retail Insights’ top 10 worldwide retail predictions for 2015. IDC revealed the predictions during a Web conference, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Retail Agenda 2015 Predictions.
Office Depot beats estimates; raises full-year outlook

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot on Tuesday reported better-than-expected results for third quarter and raised its outlook for the year. The retailer posted a profit of $29 million for the third quarter compared with $133 million in the year-ago quarter. The previous-year quarter included a gain on the sale of the Office Depot de Mexico joint venture. Sales grew 55% to $4.07 billion, fueled by the addition of OfficeMax.