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Target, other key national retailers post big gains (1 June 2012)

Customer, Partner & Retail Industry News

Target, other key national retailers post big gains
Star Tribune – USA
Spurred by Mother’s Day and Memorial Day sales, shoppers took to the stores in May, including the cheap-chic retailer Target. The Minneapolis-based discounter’s same-store sales increased 4.4 percent for the four-week period ended May 6, results that solidly beat analysts’ estimates. Analysts tracked by Thomson Reuters expected Target to report a 3.5 percent increase in stores open at least a year, a key measure of a retailer’s health. Results also were at the high end of Target’s own expectations for the four weeks ended May 26. Target said its results were fueled by strong sales of food, clothing and health and beauty items. Other retailers, including department store chain Macy’s Inc. and mall stalwart Limited Brands Inc., all posted bigger-than-expected gains from a year ago, an indication that Americans may be loosening their purse strings. This comes in the wake of bright new styles, warm weather and various promotions last month. But the increased spending still comes in an uncertain economic environment.

“The pent-up demand is continuing to pour out a little,” said Ken Perkins, president of Retail Metrics, a research firm. “I wouldn’t say it’s happening in droves. But consumers are updating their wardrobes.”…

Talbots To Be Acquired By Sycamore At Lower Price
Wall Street Journal (Subscription) – New York
Karen Talley / Women’s retailer Talbots Inc. agreed to be taken private by Sycamore Partners in a deal valued at about $193.3 million, less than the company stood to receive in a potential buyout that fell apart last week. Talbots’s stockholders will receive $2.75 a share, down from the former offer of $3.05 a share. The new offer is more than twice the price Talbots closed at on Wednesday, following the stock’s tanking last week as a potential deal fell apart. Shares were recently up 93% to $2.49. It will now be up to Stefan Kaluzny, a retail veteran who heads Sycamore Partners, to take a company that has struggled for years and get it back on its feet. Talbots, which caters to mature women, ran into trouble as it tried to broaden its audience, a move that turned regular customers off. Talbots, which is 65 years old, has taken on debt and posted annual losses, while peers like Ann Inc. and Chico’s FAS Inc. made progress. Talbots cut jobs and inventory, closed stores and reduced employees’ hours. Kaluzny is likely to go back to Talbots’s core customers and try to win back their loyalty, with fresh merchandise tailored for them, said a person familiar with the matter. “They are going to signal they are really serious about changing from the product up.” Chief Executive Trudy Sullivan, who has announced plans to leave Talbots once a successor is found, will likely be succeeded “by someone who is a real merchant and will drive what Talbots is going to stand for from a product perspective,” this person said…

Shares of teen retailers fall on May sales reports
Boomberg Businessweek/AP – USA
As most major retailers reported a fairly sunny picture for May, the cloud hanging over teen retailers grew darker. The Buckle Inc., Wet Seal Inc. and other chains geared to teens reported weak May sales trends on Thursday. That furthered concerns about soft sales in the sector and sent shares of nearly all major teen retailers down by early afternoon. Wet Seal said its May revenue at stores open at least a year dropped 8.8 percent as sales fell at both its Arden B and Wet Seal stores. That’s more fall than the 8.3 percent decline that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had anticipated. The comparison of sales at stores open at least a year is considered a key indicator of retailers’ financial performance because it excludes the impact of stores that recently opened or closed. The Buckle saw a 0.2 percent rise for May, while analysts expected a 3.3 percent increase. Customers appeared to have cut back on buying the company’s trendy jeans and t-shirts…

Survey: Pinterest passes Facebook in consumer engagement with retailers
Chain Store Age – Washington D.C.
Consumers are using Pinterest to engage with retailers more than Facebook or Twitter, according to a survey released Thursday by Shop.org, comScore and The Partnering Group. Additionally, the “2012 Social and Mobile Commerce Study” discovered that one third of smartphone owners who shop online share their location with a retailer. U.S. consumers reported that they already follow an average of 9.3 retail companies on Pinterest, compared to the average 6.9 retailers they follow on Facebook and the 8.5 retailers they track via Twitter. Overall, almost two out of five (38%) online consumers follow retailers through one or more social networking sites. The survey found company blogs, YouTube and Facebook command the majority of consumers’ social activity. In particular, 70% of those who follow a retailer’s blog click through to the website, and though sometimes overlooked in the overall social media mix, more than two-thirds (68%) of consumers use YouTube to browse and research a retail company.

“Retailers have done a commendable job embracing social media – engaging their customers where it makes sense while keeping their brand relevant, interesting, appealing and exciting on each platform,” said Shop.org executive director Vicki Cantrell…

For more retail headlines, read the Oracle Retail Daily published every afternoon from links shared by our Twitter connections.

And don’t forget to visit the Insight-Driven Retailing Blog and Oracle Retail International Blog.

Posted 01 June 2012 § Abercrombie & Fitch § Aeropostale § American Eagle § Macy's § Talbots § Target ‡ Comments (0) °

Macy’s New Focus: Will Transformation Bring Customer Growth? (31 May 2012)

Customer, Partner & Retail Industry News

Macy’s New Focus: Will Transformation Bring Customer Growth?
Forbes – USA
There has been an exciting transformation at Macy’s. It started about three years ago, when management introduced the “My Macy’s” localization program where the company tailors merchandise assortment in every store location. Macy’s management has intensified its effort to serve the needs of young men and women between the ages of 13 and 30 – the Millennial Customer – our nation’s largest generation. The company plans to attract these customers with new merchandise assortments. Macy’s Mstylelab and Impulse departments are refocusing their assortment to offer fast-fashions, making shopping more exciting for these customers. The company identified the 18 to 30 year old customer as looking for better merchandise while the 13 to 22 year olds are looking for new products. This is a concerted effort by Macy’s to fight the competition like H & M, Uniqlo or Forever 21 who have gained share of market in this fast moving , competitive arena. Fast-fashion emphasis means that new merchandise reaches the selling floor quickly and often. In the 1950’s, when I was working at Macy’s, the company was also in a transformational mode. There were many bargain tables on the main floor in the Herald Square store. When management decided to eliminate them it was a big shock to customers – they were lost without their bargains. It was also a bold decision by a management looking to the future and new fashion opportunities in women’s accessories, handbags, cosmetics and fragrances…

JC Penney Decides Promotional Approach Is Not So Bad
Wall Street Journal (Subscription) – New York
Karen Talley / J.C. Penney is backpedaling on its non-promotional stance, apparently adding a Black Friday event after holding a Memorial Day weekend sale as it licks its wounds from an abysmal first quarter. The retailer is expected to start its sales on some additional Fridays and to keep merchandise marked down until it is bought. The move, with five such Friday sales planned this year, is extending the “Best Price Friday,” program that Penney already holds on the first and third Fridays of the month. The move by Penney’s came after Chief Executive Ron Johnson spoke adamantly in January about steering the department store chain away from promotions and adopting a largely everyday low-price approach. “We have made the decision to change our pricing strategy, and we’re going to stick to it,” Johnson said at the time. Johnson’s three-level selling plan is meant to do away with scores of sales events in favor of more-stable pricing. The approach involves everyday prices, sales that last a month, and certain merchandise marked for clearance the first and third Friday of each month. The sale this past Friday was meant “to provide additional best prices for our customers shopping this Memorial Day weekend,” J.C. Penney spokeswoman Kate Coultas said…

Wal-Mart to spell out overseas expansion plans
Businessweek/AP – New York
Anne D’Innocenzio / Wal-Mart executives are expected to detail how the world’s largest retailer plans to turn around its Brazil and China operations and report on its expansion efforts in Canada at an annual pep rally Wednesday for its international workers. The international parlay, however, will likely be overshadowed by published allegations of bribery in its Mexico operations, which threatens to thwart momentum in its international business, Wal-Mart’s fastest-growing division. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., had said earlier this month that it plans to slow store expansion in Brazil, where shoppers, accustomed to big discounts, haven’t readily accepted its “everyday low price” strategy. In China, the company is working on making its stores more productive. The half-day meeting, to be held at a University of Arkansas arena in Fayetteville, Ark., is part of a week of events leading up to Friday’s shareholders’ meeting. In late April, The New York Times reported that Wal-Mart allegedly failed to notify law enforcement after it found evidence that officials authorized millions of dollars in bribes in its Mexico operation in exchange for speedier building permits and other favors. Mexico is Wal-Mart’s largest international operation. Regulatory scrutiny could slow store expansion growth…

Tesco launches virtual window shopping for its F&F range
Internet Retailing – UK
Shoppers can now buy F&F clothing direct from the windows of three central London Tesco stores using new technology. Using an Aurasma-developed app on their smartphones, customers point their phones at posters featuring F&F clothing in the windows of Tesco Metro stores in Covent Garden, Dean Street and Tooley Street. On their phones, the pictures transform into moving images that show the F&F range on the catwalk, bringing the clothes to life. From there shoppers can add the items they like to their virtual shopping basket and buy. They can then pick up the items the following day, using Tesco’s Click & Collect service newly-rolled out to Metro stores, or have them delivered to a convenient address. At the same time, F&F will also open its first pop-up shop in Covent Garden piazza for four days over the Jubilee weekend, from May 30 to June 2. Customers at the 50s-themed boutique will be able try on clothes in the pop-up store, many from the extended online range, and can also experiment with using the F&F virtual fitting room service. Purchases will be made either by scanning a QR ticket or through an iPad station in the shop.

“This is really exciting new technology that we think our customers will enjoy using,” said Emily Shamma, Tesco clothing online director. “It’s a great opportunity to help us to reach new customers who may not be familiar with our full F&F collection. It’s really convenient for the busy office workers who use Tesco Metro stores in Covent Garden and London Bridge during their lunch break or on their way home after work.”…

For more retail headlines, read the Oracle Retail Daily published every afternoon from links shared by our Twitter connections.

And don’t forget to visit the Insight-Driven Retailing Blog and Oracle Retail International Blog.

Posted 31 May 2012 § JCPenney § Macy's § Tesco § Wal-Mart ‡ Comments (0) °

DSW Devotes 25% of Q1 CapEx to IT Enhancements (30 May 2012)

Customer, Partner & Retail Industry News

DSW Devotes 25% of Q1 CapEx to IT Enhancements
RIS News – USA
DSW looked forward to carrying the momentum of 2011 into 2012. Continuing its success, net sales for the quarter ending April 28, 2012 increased 10.9% to $558.6 million. The retailer continues to accelerate its growth through expansion of its store base, IT investments, growth of the loyalty program and record online sales. The DSW store base has grown by 10%, while sales productivity has grown more than 28%. Capital expenditures for the first quarter were $24 million, with $18 million allotted to new and remodeled stores and $6 million for information technology and business infrastructure. The DSW rewards database grew to more than 19 million members, a group that accounts for 89% of DSW’s total sales. The loyalty program provides the retailer with a rich database of purchase information it uses for precision marketing purposes in support of both the stores and DSW.com. The multi-channel customer base grew by 50% in the quarter: this is an area of emphasis because multi-channel customers purchase 70% more than single channel customers, according to the retailer. During the quarter, work was completed on the Shoephoria size optimization system. DSW now has selling profiles by store that reflect natural demand by size and by individual store. Later this quarter, the retailer will place orders utilizing this information so that it can supply stores with sizes that better reflect customers’ needs…

Retailers Focus On Testing In-Store Mobile POS And POP Solutions
Retail TouchPoints – USA
Best-in-class retailers are recognizing the front- and back-end benefits of implementing mobile technology. From improving inventory and supply chain management efficiencies to maximizing the in-store customer experience, tablets and smartphones offer merchants an influx of information and resources. As a result, more retailers are testing and implementing mobile POS and point of payment (POP) solutions, according to a recent study from Motorola Solutions. Currently, 23% of retailers have mobile POS or POP solutions deployed, according to the Motorola “Mobile POS Study.” However, results point to more rigorous pilots of smartphone and tablet solutions (11.3% of respondents), and retailers’ plans to begin testing within the next six to 12 months (13.5% and 11.7%, respectively). To glean insight on current mobile investments, plans and concerns of implementing mobilized tools and technologies, Motorola fielded a web-based survey of retail executives from Q4 2011 through Q1 2012. Executives from hospitality and field service organizations also participated. Although 74.8% of retailers said they currently use desktop computers for customer facing applications, overall investment in these devices will drop to 53.9% in the next year. This dramatic shift in usage is due largely to the growing prevalence of mobile devices in enterprise environments, and to retailers wanting to create an interactive, cross-channel environment in brick-and-mortar locations, according to Scott Drobner, Director of Business and Market Intelligence for Motorola Solutions…

Macy’s same-store sales rise 4.2% in May on strength of online
Chain Store Age – Cincinnati
Macy’s reported Wednesday that same-store sales for the month of May increased 4.2% compared with the previous year. Revenue rose 4.1% to $2.02 billion.

“Growth in May 2012 came from stores and online, and across geography and categories of business,” said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and CEO. “We are seeing the ongoing benefit of the key strategies that have propelled our success over the past several years, including My Macy’s localization, omnichannel integration and associate training to enhance customer engagement.”

Online sales for Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com combined were up 42.3% in May.

Why Facebook Phone Should Tap $5.5 Billion Mobile In Retail
…Mobile in retail started buzzing about the time Apple started using the iPad tablets in their stores. The Facebook Phone (which has not been officially confirmed by Facebook itself) should focus on the retail POS (point of sale) environment because Google, Apple, Amazon, and other internet giants are not creating direct retail solutions. Well, besides PayPal. And that hip Square credit card reader tied to an iPad makes for a mean looking cash register (check out link below for “The Cashbox” from Happy Owl Studio). These are built for the smaller merchant. In fact, it is the makers and small developers who are making it possible to have a POS app or an iPad cash register. But large and small storefronts will soon have consumers using their mobile device to checkout. Back to the Facebook Phone: Forget the standard consumer phone. Go where the real money is – in retail (traditional and online). Make this new phone into something that isn’t being done: a smarter, social-enabled point of sale solution. Retailers are struggling with mobile, and as I share below from the IHL Group report, there are two stages that are hammering the retail future. First, retailers are trying to use tablets and smartphones (or rugged handhelds) on their own to process a checkout transaction. Not easy especially when this next step is close behind: Consumers can use their own devices to pay. A phone that is also a super secure checkout device could be a game changer…

For more retail headlines, read the Oracle Retail Daily published every afternoon from links shared by our Twitter connections.

And don’t forget to visit the Insight-Driven Retailing Blog and Oracle Retail International Blog.

Posted 30 May 2012 § Macy's ‡ Comments (0) °

Retailers report May sales boost (29 May 2012)

Customer, Partner & Retail Industry News

Retailers report May sales boost
Financial Times (Registration) – UK
Retailers are optimistic about the next three months after enjoying the biggest lift to sales in more than a year in May, according to a business survey, bolstering hopes the economy will experience stronger consumer spending over the summer. The CBI business organisation’s monthly survey of retailers, conducted in the first two weeks of May, showed 43 per cent of respondents reported higher sales than the same month a year ago and only 23 per cent reported lower sales. More respondents were optimistic than pessimistic about the next three months, the first time this has been the case since November 2010. In addition, the survey suggested the number of people employed in the retail sector increased on a year ago for the first time since February 2003. David Tinsley, an economist at BNP Paribas, said the timing of Easter may have flattered the figures but added that the survey “suggests the economy is continuing to muddle along in a relatively positive manner despite the concerns over the external environment”. Retail sales have been extremely weak for several years as people grapple with falling real wages. However, retailers are hoping the Queen’s Jubilee bank holiday and the Olympics will lift the nation’s mood and inspire them to spend some money…

Social Media Analytics: The Core Of The ‘Me-Tailing’ Movement
Retail TouchPoints – USA
Today’s empowered shoppers want more personalized information and offers that appeal to their emotional needs. To that end, they are relying on social media to research and select personalized products and services. It’s the concept of “Me-Tailing:” the retail industry’s transition from transaction-based commerce to real-time, often one-to-one social network communications and marketing of brand experiences that satisfy consumers’ emotional wants and aspirations. At the core of Me-Tailing is social media analytics. This process starts with raking blogs, forums, video posts, social media web sites (including visual curation) and other online communities for predetermined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) revealed in these posts and conversations. Retail organizations analyze the data and use it to profile shoppers to better personalize future social campaigns. Measurable results reveal the business intelligence that will nourish the next best retail strategies for addressing consumers’ needs. Social media marketing isn’t new, but its sophisticated analytical software is getting more granular every day. While many retailers have been using basic monitoring tools for years to listen to social conversations, the latest news is centered on the new solutions that provide profiling and psychographics that identify key brand influencers/advocates. With this information in hand, merchants can facilitate personalization, crowdsourcing and positive viral marketing. Retailers can distinguish themselves as leaders in the Me-Tailing movement by implementing solutions that expose and respond to consumers’ needs, preferences, opinions, experiences and shopping behaviors. In fact, as the retail industry advances in parallel with the socially networked consumer, Me-Tailing may become the new way to define retail…

Next step in customer loyalty is tracking behaviour beyond retailers’ own stores
The Retail Bulletin – UK
Without doubt loyalty programmes give great insight into consumers’ purchasing patterns within a retailer’s own stores but when the customer walks out of the door then there is no visibility of their shopping activities. The answer to this could be in the hands of Visa Europe, which is leveraging the data from the 12 billion transactions it generates from its millions of cards – including 100 million in the UK – to give retailers a broader view of consumers’ purchasing patterns across the whole retail sector. Ahead of presenting at the 3rd Retail Bulletin Customer Loyalty Conference 2012 in London on June 13th, Crispin Rogers, Senior Vice President for Loyalty and Merchant Analysis at Visa Europe, runs through his thinking on the topic of ‘Building loyalty through a 360 degree view of the customer’.

“You can obviously get very sound understanding of consumers’ in-store if you’ve a loyalty programme but you do not see what they do when they then drive down the road,” he says. The idea is to give retailers a 360 degree view of customers’ activities by taking the transaction flow from Visa debit card payments (Visa processes 90 per cent of UK debit transactions) and categorise these purchases from a list of 30-plus sectors including DIY, health & beauty, and various sub-categories of food and fashion…

Multichannel retailers more trusted than pure-play
Retail Gazette – UK
Consumers perceive multichannel retailers with bricks and mortar stores to be more reliable and more trustworthy than online-only rivals, new research has revealed. An exclusive survey carried out for Retail Gazette by research firm Lightspeed has found that while pure-play e-tailers are overwhelmingly considered to be better value and have a wider range of goods, companies with both transactional websites and stores have an advantage in regards to trust. Out of 1,000 online consumers surveyed this month, price was named as the most important factor when shopping online, and 80 per cent said they consider pure-play retailers as cheap, whereas only 38 per cent said the same of multichannel operators. Despite price being named as an important factor in online buying for 94 per cent of people, 70 per cent said that they prefer to buy from retailers with an online and high street presence. Ralph Risk, Marketing Director for Europe at Lightspeed Research, commented: “There does seem to be higher level of trust for brands that have both physical stores as well as online…

For more retail headlines, read the Oracle Retail Daily published every afternoon from links shared by our Twitter connections.

And don’t forget to visit the Insight-Driven Retailing Blog and Oracle Retail International Blog.

Posted 29 May 2012 § Wal-Mart ‡ Comments (0) °

Nordstrom Intensifies its Internet Presence (25 May 2012)

Customer, Partner & Retail Industry News

Nordstrom Intensifies its Internet Presence
Forbes – USA
At a recent conference call Blake Nordstrom, president and CEO of Nordstrom, the fashion department store company, indicated that their newest store opened in Salt Lake City, Utah with 150 mobile point-of-sale-devices making shopping faster and more convenient. Some of its best salespersons have I-phones that lets them quickly contact favorite customers when new merchandise arrives. Nordstrom management has committed to invest this year $140 million or about 30% of total capital expenditures for IT infrastructure this should give customers the same high quality of service on the Internet as they have in the store. Nordstrom added that today’s customer demands both speed and service. Service at Nordstrom is fabled. I have known the company and its management for close to 40 years. The company has prospered under the leadership of Jack McMillan, Bruce, Jim and John Nordstrom who are now retired, turning over management of the company to a younger generation. There has always been emphasis on great service – I heard the story of a salesman meeting a customer at a plane in order to deliver merchandise, and there are more stories of associates who felt empowered by management’s policies to give their customers extraordinary service. Today, retailers like Nordstrom, Macy’s and others have embraced the omnichannel operating concept. It is a new technology to integrate inventory and fulfillment for stores, the Internet, and other mobile devices. The great experience that Nordstrom customers had will be continued on mobile devices or the home computer. Store associates can access the site and help customers locate products that may have sold out in some locations…

Remaking J.C. Penney Without Coupons
Bloomberg Businessweek – USA
Here’s a riddle: How do bargain hunters know they’re getting a bargain if there’s no hunt? The answer is, they don’t. That’s just one of the lessons Ron Johnson has learned in his six months as chief executive officer of J. C. Penney. Johnson developed Target’s (TGT) “cheap chic” persona before moving to Apple, where he created the world’s most profitable stores. Now he’s trying something really hard. He wants to wean Penney’s middle-market customers from a steady diet of coupons and almost constant discounting. So far, they’re not buying. “The transition has been tougher than we anticipated,” Johnson said during a May 15 presentation to investors. Johnson’s strategy was deceptively simple: quickly replace Penney’s relatively high list prices—which it aggressively discounted—with lower everyday “fair and square prices.” The early results of that grand experiment have been dismal. The department store chain, with 1,100 U.S. stores, had overall revenue of $3.2 billion in the first quarter, and lost $163 million during that time. Sales at stores open more than a year fell an average 19 percent. The number of people coming into Penney stores dropped by 10 percent, and the number of those who bought something fell, too, by 5 percent.

“What is the source of this?” asked Mike Kramer, Penney’s new chief operating officer, during the May presentation. “Coupons, that drug,” he said. “We did not realize how deep some of the customers were into this. … We have got to wean them off this and educate our consumers.” Added Johnson: “We have got to get people to understand our pricing strategy.”…

Advance Auto Parts Increases Product Reviews by 700%, Dominates Competitors On Facebook
Retail TouchPoints – USA
As consumers spend more time on social channels, social media integration and building customer engagement has become a major component for eTailers. One way to accomplish this goal is to motivate customers to post and follow reviews on e-Commerce sites, which can help retailers gain additional traffic. Advance Auto Parts, an automotive aftermarket retailer, sought to generate this integration and engagement by incorporating PowerReviews’ Social Loyalty and Customer Reviews management tool into its company web site. By doing so, Advance Auto Parts dominated its social channels competitors in terms of customer engagement and became the Number One online auto parts dealer on Facebook, according to Howard Blumenthal, E-Commerce Platform Solutions Director for Advance Auto Parts. During a recent webinar titled, “Advance Auto Parts Tunes Up Their Social Commerce With PowerReviews,” Blumenthal discussed how the company encouraged customers to share photos of recent purchases and product reviews, which can drive more sales through social media. He said that the PowerReviews implementation in 2009 helped Advance Auto Parts gain approximately 55,000 reviews ― a 700% average yearly growth in reviews ― and a quick retailer-to-customer question response rate of less than 24 hours. In addition to this growth, the PowerReviews tool helped Advance Auto Parts achieve a 141% growth in reviews posted to Facebook. “It’s all about getting people more engaged and thinking of us as top-of-mind,” said Blumenthal…

Competitor News

SAP to buy Ariba, boosts cloud bet
Reuters – San Francisco
Top European software company SAP AG plans to buy Ariba Inc in a deal valuing the business and commerce network company at $4.3 billion, its latest maneuver against Oracle in the fast-growing Internet-based computing market. SAP is taking aim at Oracle, the world’s No. 2 maker of business management software, as they vie with Salesforce.com Inc in the multibillion dollar cloud-computing services market, one of the industry’s hottest area of growth. Shares in Ariba, which were halted briefly, leapt 20 percent to SAP’s offer price of about $45 per share.

“This deal puts them more on the radar screen and gives them another big customer base they can sell additional services into. These are not inexpensive moves but it signals they are really tilting more toward the cloud,” said Evercore analyst Kirk Materne. SAP’s announcement comes just weeks before Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is due to announce the Silicon Valley company’s latest cloud software strategy, on June 6…

For more retail headlines, read the Oracle Retail Daily published every afternoon from links shared by our Twitter connections.

And don’t forget to visit the Insight-Driven Retailing Blog and Oracle Retail International Blog.

Posted 25 May 2012 § Advance Auto Parts § JCPenney § Nordstrom § SAP ‡ Comments (0) °