Retail Stores

To help meet customers' desire for immediacy during the shopping experience, Nordstrom President Blake Nordstrom announced that the retailer will deploy mobile devices for its store employees by this fall.

A new report by retail consulting and research firm Customer Growth Partners shows that department stores gained market share last year for the first time in nearly three decades. According to CGP's study, department stores' share of the U.S. retail market rose for the first time since the 1980s, fueled both by innovation and superior mall anchor execution combined with top-line weakness at the granddaddy of off-mall big-boxes, Walmart's U.S. division, which is now suffering through almost two years of lagging sales.

Clothing retailer Selfridges is displaying the Urban Mobility fashion collection as QR coded artwork. The installation is a unique blend of retail fashion, art and technology and probably demonstrates why Selfridges was voted "Best Department Store in the World" by the International Association of Department Stores.

The global airport retail market will become one of the best performing in the sector. Sales are expected to exceed 60 percent by 2015, reaching $44.1 billion, reports Datamonitor Retail.

In 2011 there will be new challenges and new opportunities for apparel manufacturers, retailers and brands. Based on insights from this month's just-style management briefing, we look at what the industy can expect this year.

Selling more things at full price, controlling operating costs and increasing wholesale revenue helped Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.'s fiscal third-quarter net income rise by more than half, the company said.

Greetings from sunny San Diego, where I'm covering the Online Marketing Summit (OMS) for sister publication eM+C. I know, San Diego in February, tough gig. 

In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the ailing company alluded to a potential bankruptcy, saying its future was in "doubt" unless it could come up with some fresh financing.

Beauty care company Estée Lauder is using digital technologies to enhance the customer experience at various points of sale, including iPads for consumer use. Estée Lauder is "the first cosmetics brand to put iPads at selected store counters," said Fabrizio Freda, the company's president and CEO.

Despite record-breaking winter storms that turned a trip to the mall into an adventure travel expedition, Limited Brands and Zumiez achieved double-digit same-store sales increases of 24 percent and 15.3 percent, respectively.