An unlikely pair, to say the least, Lord & Taylor has teamed up with Walmart to launch an e-commerce “flagship” on walmart.com, which will debut in spring 2018. The move is a strike back against Amazon’s recent strides in luxury fashion.
Voice-Activated Shopping? An Analyst Weighs In
Retailers are reaching into their bag of tricks and pulling out all the stops to try to compete with Amazon. The latest? Walmart teaming up with Google’s commerce platform Google Express to offer voice-enabled shopping. Will this work? Zhewei Zhang, Assistant Professor of Information Systems and researches digital innovation at Warwick Business School, …
WALMART BUYS BONOBOS, EXPANDING PRODUCT OFFERING ON JET.COM
Walmart expands its product offering on Jet.com with the acquisition of Bonobos.
INDIE E-TAILER MODCLOTH GOES MASS MARKET WITH A BUYOUT BY WALMART
Modcloth, the indie e-tailer who built its name on vintage-inspired fashion and home items, is being bought out by the biggest mass market company worldwide: Walmart. News broke late last week and estimates put the deal in the $50 million to $75 million range. From a business perspective, the deal …
WALMART BUYS JET.COM FOR $3.3 BILLION
It happened. After much speculation, brick and mortar giant Walmart went through with its sale of rising pure play e-tailer Jet.com. Walmart bought Jet–which has aggressively gone after Amazon since its inception just a year ago–for $3.3 billion in cash and stock. The deal is the largest-ever purchase of a U.S. …
Awards: Jewelry Company FAF Wins Walmart Supplier of the Year
FAF Inc., a leading fashion jewelry and accessories company, recently received Wal-Mart’s Supplier of the Year award for “delivering excellence in execution in the apparel category.” The award is based on multiple performance metrics, including sales growth, margin improvement, modular excellence and improved store execution. “To be recognized by the …
1.2 Million Walmart Workers to Receive Pay Increases
Bentonville, AR–More than 1.2 million Walmart workers will receive a pay increase starting Feb. 21, reported the nation’s largest retailer today. The raise comes as Walmart fulfills a commitment to increase its minimum hourly wage. Walmart claims that on Feb. 20, the pay raise will be one of the largest …
DMI’s Top 10 Mobile In-Store Retailers: Who Made the List?
Bethesda, MD—JCPenney, American Eagle Outfitters, Target and Walmart have been in the news recently over lowered foot traffic, missed earnings or sales and restructuring/restrategizing. But there’s one area where these retailers are excelling, And that’s the quality of mobile experience they are providing shoppers. All four made it into the …
Walmart to Close Nearly 300 Stores; 16,000 Jobs Up in the Air
Bentonville, AR—Walmart today revealed it plans to close 269 stores internationally (154 in the USA) and end its smallest store format. As a result, the restructuring will affect some 16,000 employees. Most of the affected stores in the United States are within 10 miles of another Walmart. The company said …
Millennials List Their Top 100 Brands of 2015
St. Louis–As everyone is trying to decipher just what the Millennials will do, buy and say next comes the latest listing of the top 100 Millennials brands. Conducted by ad agency Moosylvania which asked more than 3,500 millennials to select their favorite brands over the past three years. Ranked by …
Reports from the Shopping Cart: Retailers Speak Up about Black Weekend
Washington and New York—Mixed reports about Black Weekend shopping came in this morning as retailers, analysts and trade associations relayed statements about sales. Some reported strong foot traffic even on Thanksgiving night. Others says traffic is for in-store sales and that Cyber Monday may actually wind up being the strongest …
Walmart Surprises with Profit Beat, Comp Store Increase
Bentonville, AR—Walmart surprised many today with an earnings report that beat analysts’ forecasts as comp store sales rose for the fifth straight quarter. ]Third quarter earnings were $1.03 a share beating the consensus estimate of 97 cents by 6.2%. However, it declined 10.4% from the year-ago earnings from continuing operations …
Faith Equality Index Debuts, Scores 300 Brands
Raleigh, NC—Faith Driven Consumer— representing 41 million Christian consumers who spend $2 trillion annually–has earned recognition for rating the faith compatibility of major brands both in the consumer and entertainment spheres, as well as serving as a voice for this community. Today, building on more than four years of research and behind-the-scenes work with …
Chico’s FAS Names Walmart Executive Shelley Broader as New CEO
People
Fort Myers, FL—A top Walmart executive will soon be chief executive at Chico’s FAS. The women’s specialty retailer said Wednesday that Shelley Broader, who has more than 25 years of experience at Walmart and other retailers, will succeed present CEO David F. Dyer. Broader has been chief executive of Walmart’s …
Walmart U.S. Appoints Steve Bratspies to Chief Merchandising Officer
People
Bentonville, AR—In the latest move by a major retailer to shift its merchandise mix, Walmart U.S. announced the appointment of Steve Bratspies to chief merchandising officer for U.S. stores, effective Oct. 19. Bratspies will oversee all merchandise categories across more than 4,500 stores in the U.S. business. He will continue …
Target’s Price-Matching to Lure More Millennial Shoppers?
Minneapolis—Target unveiled a new price-matching policy today, which includes price-matching both online and in-store. It’s all part of Target’s greater initiative to compete with the convenience and price advantages offered by competitors Amazon and Walmart both of whom are included in Target’s new price-matching, which is set to launch on …
Surprise: Sears Jumps in Popularity as Back-to-School Destination
London—Poor Sears hasn’t made many “best of” lists lately. After years of losing sales, spin offs, REITS etc. the beleaguered company is often cited as one of the worse: worst CEO, worst working conditions etc. But believe it or not, in its first Back to School survey of the season, …
NRF Receives $800,000 Grant from Walmart for Industry Training
As part of its $100 million commitment to industry workforce development, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation has awarded an $800,000 grant to the NRF Foundation. The grant will enable the NRF Foundation to better analyze the retail industry’s learning and development needs; fund three research projects; and create a …
Chat App Tango Launches Shopping
Mobile messaging service Tango just rolled out Tango Shop, a social shopping function targeted to U.S. subscribers. Now, Tango members can buy directly from Walmart.com and AliExpress (a global marketplace owned by the Alibaba Group) without exiting Tango and use the messaging functionality to share their finds socially. While U.S. …
As Earnings Reports Roll In, Retail Stocks Outperform Other Industries: Report
New York—The stock market has been making impressive gains the last week or so. And one of the chief industry sectors pushing up stocks averages are retailers. After a flurry of retail earnings reports last week, Zacks reported that “retail stocks in particular have been outperforming the S&P 500 index …