Articles By Anna Rose Welch

  1. Barnes & Noble Hires New CEO 1/13/2014

    After a six-month search following William Lynch’s resignation, Barnes & Noble has named a CEO. Michael Huseby, the head of the company’s digital division, has been named the new CEO, effective immediately. This is a big step up for Huseby who, while a B&N veteran, has only been with the company since March 2012. Huseby joined the company as its CFO and was promoted to president a year later. He has also held positions for Cablevision Systems, Charter Communications, and AT&T Broadband.

  2. Macy's Will Lay Off 2,500, Take Other Cost-Cutting Measures 1/13/2014

    Despite the fact Macy’s reported strong holiday financial results, the company has announced its intentions to lay off 2,500 employees in an attempt to cut costs this year. Other cost-cutting measures include closing five stores (with plans to open 8 new/replacement stores), and combining its Midwest and North regions into a new North Central area. It also plans to cut central office, administration, and back-of-house expenses. These changes are expected to save the company roughly $100 million per year, beginning this year.

  3. Belk Chooses Accenture To Aid In Omni-Channel Transformation 1/10/2014

    Belk recently announced its plans to invest $200 million to upgrade its omni-channel presence over the next five years. The department store is calling this upgrade the “Omni-channel Transformation Initiative,” and through it, the company will be able to reach out to customers and provide them with a seamless experience in-store, online, and via mobile. CEO John Belk says, “Customers have many ways to choose to shop with us, and this project helps us ensure our brand, our service, and our fashion assortments are reflected across all channels.”

  4. Apple Launches Store On Chinese E-Commerce Site Tmall 1/10/2014

    Apple took a significant step into the Chinese market earlier this week when it set up an official store on the Chinese e-commerce site Tmall. This site, operated by e-commerce goliath Alibaba, is currently the second largest online retailer, and according to analysis firm Euromonitor International, is Amazon’s premier source of competition. In fact, the firm predicts that Tmall will overtake Amazon’s reign by 2015. This new move in Apple’s expansion plan will surely serve as an important step to help the company gain even more ground abroad and in the realms of e-commerce.

  5. Giant Eagle, Safeway Partner With inMarket To Roll Out iBeacons 1/9/2014

    Apple iBeacon technology provides customers with smartphone coupons and promotions in the aisles, simplifying shopping and encouraging more spending. Several grocery stores have begun exploring the future of advertising this week as marketing company inMarket begins testing a new advertising system in their aisles. Over the next few weeks, inMarket will be activating Apple iBeacons in more than 200 Giant Eagle and Safeway stores in Cleveland, Seattle, and San Francisco, which will beam signals to customers’ phones and provide opt-in notifications about sales, deals, or rewards opportunities.

  6. Amazon, L.L. Bean Earn Highest Customer Satisfaction Scores This Holiday 1/9/2014

    The ForeSee Experience Index shows Amazon had lots of successes this holiday season, but private company L.L. Bean is also experiencing a fair share of online success. According to the ForeSee Experience Index (FXI): 2013 U.S. Retail Edition, Amazon and L.L Bean earned the highest customer satisfaction scores (90 points) for the holiday season this year. Some of the other key findings include: Walmart garnered a higher mobile satisfaction score this year. While it still came in below Amazon (87), the retail giant improved last year’s score by five points, reaching 80. QVC, Costco, and O’Reilly Auto Parts garnered strong marks for contact center satisfaction, and supermarket Publix threw Apple to the curb, garnering the highest score in store satisfaction.

  7. Hhgregg Reports Disappointing Preliminary Q3'14 Results 1/8/2014

    The first holiday report confirms season was no celebration for retailers this year. Hhgregg was the first major retailer to release its preliminary holiday results on Monday, confirming suspicions that it was a difficult season for businesses. The electronics retailer estimates that net sales for the third quarter ended Dec. 31 decreased roughly 12 percent, equaling $707 million. This amount is down from last year’s $799.6 million. Q3’14 same-store sales are estimated to have dropped approximately 11 percent. The company will report its third quarter on Jan. 30.

  8. Men's Wearhouse Turns To Jos. A. Bank Shareholders With Higher Bid 1/8/2014

    In the latest installment of the Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank story, Men’s Wearhouse has made another bid for its smaller rival and taken it directly to its shareholders — proving it’s getting tired of playing games. On Monday, Men’s Wearhouse offered a $1.6 billion bid to acquire Jos. A. Bank, not three weeks after Jos. A. Bank rejected its previous $1.5 billion proposal. Upon making its offer, Men’s Wearhouse says, “Although we have made clear our strong preference to work collaboratively with Jos. A. Bank to realize the benefits of this transaction, we are committed to this combination and, accordingly, we are taking our offer directly to shareholders.”

  9. NRF Appeals “Flawed” Swipe Fee Settlement 1/7/2014

    Following U.S. District Judge John Gleeson’s approval of the $5.7 billion settlement between retail groups and Visa and MasterCard regarding swipe fees, the National Retail Federation (NRF) hinted that it would be continuing the fight to protect merchants. Now, it’s official. Three weeks later, on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014, the NRF announced it is appealing the recent settlement in the hopes that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will overturn a lower court’s ruling.

  10. Zappos Embarks On Radical Restructuring Adventure Towards Holacracy 1/7/2014

    Online retailer Zappos is taking several more steps outside the realms of tradition. In addition to calling executives “monkeys” and hosting a meeting themed “Gone Wild” in which an employee crawled into a case filled with tarantulas to retrieve a prize, CEO Tony Hsieh is planning for a major reorganization of the company’s structure.  This move will take the company from the traditional top-down hierarchy to a Holacracy with no job titles and no managers. Rather, there will be roughly 400 self-governing circles by the completion of this rollout in December 2014, and the employees in these circles will play a variety of roles. Zappos, with 1,500 employees, will be the largest company to date to implement Holacracy.