Merchandising

Talbots will use the Oracle Retail Planning and Optimization suite of applications to help identify customer preferences and localize its merchandise offerings based on buying patterns, size profiles and other key attributes.

Chocri is part of a fast-growing, web-based retail movement called “mass customization.” Consumers can now design their own foods, dress shirts, greeting cards and floral bouquets for relatively affordable prices — courtesy of a flock of eager entrepreneurs in New York City, a center of the trend.

If there's a halo product for retail this holiday season, it's Steve Jobs' iPad, the fastest-selling new product in Apple's history.

By using targeted merchandising, online retailers can dramatically increase the likelihood of increasing sales, all while pleasing their customers with products that have been preselected just for them.

With retail sales expected to rise modestly this holiday season, many experts are keeping a close eye on gift cards, wondering just how card-weary people are.

Merchants must be masterful provocateurs. They must entice consumers with things that are on their potential wish lists; things that they dream about; and items that must be deemed “covetable,” “lustworthy” or “swoonworthy.”

The NFL is going from the gridiron to the runway with fashion advice to help female fans wear their team colors everywhere from tailgates to posh nightclubs. The league has thousands of new products including jeans with logos on the back pockets, flip-flops and yoga mats for women this year. It's pairing up with shops such as Victoria's Secret and Destination Maternity to sell the new products this fall in 3,000 new stores.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is adding thousands of items to its shelves, including inexpensive ones, and is asking dollar-store suppliers to create small, under-a-dollar packages for its stores, too. In areas with high unemployment, Wal-Mart is grouping together its less than $1 items in a clear challenge to the dollar stores.

Sears, saddled with extra space in its cavernous Sears department stores, is joining with hot fashion chain Forever 21 to expand the store-within-a-store concept. The move will give Sears rental revenue and also supply some much-needed fashion pizzazz for the retailer, which has been trying for years to make its apparel business, especially for young women, more appealing.

Borders Group Inc. President Michael Edwards says he has hit on a solution for reviving his money-losing bookstore chain: Be less like a bookstore.