Stores Weekly

First Edition

Canadian footwear merchant leverages tradition against larger competitors

What’s a mid-size retailer to do in the shadow of titans seeking to gobble up all the ecommerce shopping dollars they can? Montreal-based Browns Shoes, a third-generation family-owned fashion footwear merchant founded in 1940, is in the middle tier of retail chains — intent on remaining competitive against the likes of Amazon and others and relevant to customers expecting robust shopping and service experiences, no matter the store location or device.

Visit https://stores.org/2019/10/21/catching-up-to-ecommerce/?utm_medium=STORES%20Weekly&utm_source=Email&utm_campaign=STORES%20Oct-Nov%20&utm_content=Browns to view the full article online.

New business metrics give Pearle Vision a clearer view of its relationship with the market

The Pearle Vision eye care chain was founded in 1961 in Savannah, Ga., and began expanding nationally in the 1970s. Somewhere along the line Pearle’s image of itself, and the way it was perceived by the market, became unclear, partly because of a heavy emphasis on promotional pricing. Doug Zarkin, vice president and chief marketing officer, joined the company in 2012 with a mandate to turn things around.

Visit https://stores.org/2019/10/22/a-matter-of-focus/?utm_medium=STORES%20Weekly&utm_source=Email&utm_campaign=STORES%20Oct-Nov%20&utm_content=Pearle%20Vision to view the full article online.

NRF is proud to provide our members with the online Retail Buying Guide to search for trusted vendors, products and services in the retail industry. Our guide is a user-friendly forum designed to bring suppliers and purchasers together. You can search by keyword, location, company name or category. Available whenever you need it, the Retail Buying Guide makes it easy to locate products and professional services geared to the retail industry. Click here to visit the online Retail Buying Guide! To advertise, please contact Sarah Allen for more information.

Visit https://www.naylornetwork.com/nrf-nwl/articles/index.asp?aid=586565&issueID=64477 to view the full article online.

Cut TCO by 15% on barcode devices

Retailers have relied on rugged handheld devices for over 30 years to boost efficiency and productivity. All along, devices have suffered from failures due to charging contacts that get dirty, corrode, or break. Wireless charging prevents device failure, drastically reducing TCO. An enterprise can easily reduce TCO by 15% or more deploying wireless charging devices.

Download the White Paper

Trends

An up-to-the-minute peek at data

A lot can happen in a minute. Domo’s Data Never Sleeps 7.0 infographic, the seventh-annual peek into the “volume, velocity and variety of data generated and distributed over the internet,” proved once again that data creation won’t slow down any time soon.

Visit https://stores.org/2019/10/23/an-up-to-the-minute-peek-at-data/ to view the full article online.

The digital edition of STORES includes must-read pieces, including the articles featured here. Read the current issue and browse the archives for issues you may have missed.

Visit https://www.naylornetwork.com/nrf-nwl/articles/index.asp?aid=586566&issueID=64477 to view the full article online.

NRF News

Ministry of Supply brings science to fashion

Ministry of Supply is redesigning the work wardrobe, blending high-tech performance materials, extensive research and experimentation. On this episode of NRF’s Retail Gets Real podcast, CEO and co-founder Aman Advani talks about what happens when engineering meets fashion and what the future of retail looks like.

Visit https://nrf.com/blog/ministry-supply-ceo-aman-advani-scientific-method-fashion?utm_medium=STORES%20Weekly&utm_source=Email&utm_campaign=Retail%20Gets%20Real&utm_content=Ep%20141%20Ministry%20of%20Supply to view the full article online.

Meet the visionary tech driving retail innovation in 2020

Now in its fourth year, the Innovation Lab at NRF 2020 Vision: Retail’s Big Show in New York City will feature a group of 50 companies developing the most cutting-edge technology to help retailers meet the needs of consumers, including the latest advances in artificial intelligence, augmented reality, machine learning, facial recognition, data analytics, robotics and more. Meet the companies taking part.

Visit https://nrfbigshow.nrf.com/innovation-lab?utm_medium=STORES%20Weekly&utm_source=Email&utm_campaign=NRF2020&utm_content=Innovation%20Lab to view the full article online.

Your Stores Deserve Champions!

With a mobile-first user experience, Capango eliminates the need for resumes by capturing data points about the Seeker—such as location, availability, interests, and skill sets—in just a few taps. By automatically matching Seekers with jobs based on tags selected when creating a job posting, Capango helps employers get one step closer to finding the perfect hire.

Find the Right Hires!

Small businesses, consumers pay the price for tariffs, senator says

Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) recently visited Carlton’s, a men’s and women’s apparel store in Rehoboth Beach, Del., and spoke with small business owner Trey Kraus, who said his suppliers have already raised their prices in anticipation of tariffs. “Tariffs, despite what some people might say, are not paid by the Chinese, they’re paid by American consumers,” Coons says in this NRF video.

Visit https://youtu.be/KW19MQIgicY to view the full article online.

Increasing Conversion with Localized Marketing

While everyone acknowledges in-store conversion is key to success, how best to optimize localized retail operations to drive customer engagement and conversion is less straightforward. As consumer behavior and preferences evolve, brick and mortar stores must be one step ahead in evolving with them, adjusting store specific strategies and execution accordingly. By leveraging technology to personalize products and messaging, retailers can have targeted conversations with customers that drive conversion.

National Retail Federation