As expected, Terry J. Lundgren is officially retiring from Macy's Inc. and its board on Jan. 31, at which time Jeffrey Gennette, chief executive officer, will add the title of chairman. Last March, Lundgren stepped down as chairman and ceo, and has since been executive chairman. Gennette became ceo in March. "I am proud of our company's growth, accomplishments and the talent we developed during the 14 years I have led Macy's Inc.," Lundgren said. "I have worked closely with Jeff and his team over the past two years, focusing on the changes and vision required for future success. I am confident that the company has the strategies, resources, talent and leadership to capitalize on the fundamental shifts in consumer shopping patterns we have all experienced. I continue to be impressed with Jeff's leadership, his decisiveness and his engagement with all levels of our outstanding organization." Lundgren became CEO in February 2003 and chairman and CEO in January 2004. He has been one of the nation's highest-profile retail executives, chairing the National Retail Federation twice

Department store SKP in Beijing has introduced a new lifestyle concept known as Rendez-vous which will also launch in the company's Xian store next year. The concept, designed by London-based Sybarite architects, is part of the store's extensive overhaul. Located on the fourth floor, Rendez-vous hosts a variety of curated vendors such as Rendez-vous coffee, the TWG tea room, an artisanal cheese room, and a wine bar and cellar. There is also a restaurant, Without Borders, and a bookstore. The design is meant to enhance the product and is built to be scalable.

While there has been speculation for years, Barneys  signed a lease to move into Bal Harbour Shops, which is considered one of America's most productive, upscale and unique shopping destinations. Matthew Whitman Lazenby, third-generation leader of Bal Harbour Shops and president and chief executive officer of Whitman Family Development LLC, said Barneys signed a long-term lease for a 53,000-square-foot, three-level store. Barneys will anchor the southwest end of the property and will include a Freds restaurant on the third floor with indoor and outdoor seating. Executive chef Mark Strausman will create a custom menu for the location, using the locally sourced ingredients and changing menu items seasonally.

The new store should open in 2023.

Amazon's attempt to remake shopping as we know it takes a major step forward with the opening of AmazonGo convenience store to the public. The store uses advanced technology to let shoppers walk in, take what they want off the shelf, then leave — without waiting in line for a cashier. The 1,800-square foot mini-market is modeled on a convenience store, offering takeaway food like salads and sandwiches, meal kits for home preparation and an array of beverages. Shoppers gain entry to the Amazon Go store using a smartphone app. Then a mix of cameras, sensors and artifical intelligence keeps track of what they take off the shelves. When shoppers walk out with their purchases, the system automatically charges them.

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A piece from the UK BBC looks at how the Millennial generation is changing a number of traditional aspects of everyday life including marriage, napkins and breakfast cereal. It looks more particularly at changes in the restaurant business where shops and restaurants merge, delivery-only restaurants ("ghost restaurants") or several restaurant concepts sharing one kitchen. Similarly it documents changes in the luxury market with millennials spending more on experiences while renting or sharing luxury goods such as cars or designer clothes. Traditional gyms are also being forsaken in favour of classes or community-centre facilities. The important point is that a number of businesses are failing to adapt.

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The Tea Terrace, based in House of Fraser's Oxford Street branch, has become Europe's first location to deliver the "Selfieccino," which features an image of customers' faces on the frothy topping of their drinks. Patrons send their headshots via an online messaging app to the barista and are given the choice of either a cappuccino or hot chocolate as their canvas. The image is uploaded to the "Cino" machine while the drink is placed in position. The picture is then scanned and reproduced onto the froth using a flavorless food coloring. The process takes around four minutes before an image is presented on the froth, ready to be photographed and sent to all points via social media before drinking, and costs around 5.75 pounds. ($7.5). The Tea Terrace hopes to trademark the term as they expand the service across their other two locations in London Victoria and Guildford, Surrey.

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After the floors dedicated to menswear, childrenswear, home and beauty, Printemps du Goût (a gourmet court) is the last space to complete the refurbishment of the Parisian department store, which opened in 1865. The 1700sqm space is located on the two last floors above the Printemps de l'Homme, and offers an amazing view on the Opéra Garnier. "The approach in Paris is that you do an annex, and you put food in the annex," said Paolo de Cesare, president and chief executive officer of Printemps, "we want food at the core of our building."

The seventh floor is home to a gourmet grocery featuring 2,500 products including jam, biscuits, chocolate and honey. In addition to a gift department and book section, the floor is home to a wines and spirits store run by wine merchant Le Repaire de Bacchus. A window near the escalators provides a view of the store's soaring atrium and glimpses of the five-floor men's department. The eight floor, meanwhile, houses "La Place du Marché" which offers fresh products, as well as several dining facilities from renowned professionals including pastry chef Christophe Michalak, cheese maker Laurent Dubois, and Michelin-star chef Akrame Benallal. The dining areas on the eighth floor feature globe pendant lights in a nod to the decor of the staff canteen that occupied the premises in the 19th century. In addition, Printemps plans to open a 220-seat rooftop restaurant in June, as well as a café on the ground floor, adjoining the men's accessories hall.

Printemps has decided to make the offer 100 percent French and aims to provide alternative dining options for businesspeople and tourists in an area dominated by traditional brasseries. "It's very nice that every concept is very different and in this sense, we have a very unique approach, very focused on the quality of the product, very focused on partnerships with unique chefs. We have a really distinctive reason for being and we will live very well with the other approaches. So it's a case where the more, the better,"  Paolo de Cesare said.

Iconic department store Fortnum & Mason has defied challenges that have plagued the high street this year by posting its fifth successive year of double-digit sales. The heritage retailer recorded a year-on-year sales increase of 14 per cent for its fiscal year ending July, with net sales of £113 million being its best on record. Fortnum & Mason said its sales was boosted by a 17 per cent growth in online revenue, which consisted of deliveries to more than 120 countries worldwide. Meanwhile, profit jumped 23 per cent year-on-year, with net profit now standing at £7.6 million.

The retailer said it also experienced an uptick of domestic customers both online and at its stores in London, and 82 per cent of its overall turnover derived from products manufactured in the UK.

Fortnum & Mason also launched a new apprenticeship scheme that has 25 people already in position, invested in the creation of 49 new full-time jobs, and £7 million was spent to improve and develop its infrastructure. In addition, the brand opened a new outlet in South Korea and a further three are slated to open in 2018. "I am particularly thrilled by the rise in domestic consumers over the past year," chief executive Ewan Venters said. "Customers who care about the taste, quality and sustainability of their food are coming to Fortnum's in increasing numbers, be it in our stores or online."

The 17,760-square-foot space, phase two of a plan to build the world's largest accessories hall by 2018, is all about the windows, which stretch from floor to ceiling and run along Duke Street and around the corner to Oxford Street. The 20-foot-high windows are so high that shoppers can see the sky and the hubbub on Oxford Street as they browse the Dior and Louis Vuitton spaces or dip into the luxury accessories bazaar at the center of the room; a central area which offers a mix of handbags, jewelry and other gift items. "The boundaries are blurring between the street, the windows and the retail space," said Sebastian Manes, buying and merchandising director. "We've never had windows like this before, and it's so much brighter. You can see the sky — and you can walk in the windows.".  The space, with its white terrazzo floors, classical columns and warm lighting, is part of a three-phase accessories hall project set to be completed in the late spring of 2018. Once finished, the accessories hall will span 60,000 square feet, and make up one-third of Selfridges' ground floor, and one-tenth of the 600,000-square-foot Oxford Street flagship.

Ikea is rethinking its business model and focusing on city-centre outlets. Urbanisation and digitalisation are keys to the future and the company is even considering selling goods on third-party sites. The new CEO has said that experimentation would accelerate ahead of the presentation of plans for the company to be presented next year. New structures are being created which will allow testing in many places. Meanwhile new store and e-commerce investments are increasing, contributing to the fall in profits (a city-centre store in Copenhagen is on the cards). Ikea ended the year to last August with operating income down to €3bn from €4.5 bn last year. Revenues increased only moderately from €35.7bn to €36.3bn. The cost of sales rose more rapidly from €20.3bn to €23.7bn, bringing gross margin down 9 percentage points to 34.6%.

In an interview appearing in Business of Fashion, editor Imran Amed asks Anna Wintour, legendary editor of Vogue, about fashion and the role of media. For Wintour, there has never, during her tenure of almost 30 years, been a more tumultuous period, nor a more fascinating one. They also talk about the role of digital in Vogue, how fashion is changing, the Theresa May story, the impact of Trump and changing retail.

interview - part 1

interview - part 2

Legendary figure, Jean-Claude Biver, head of LVMH watch division, shares his views on brand identity in an interview with WWD. He uses the examples of Tag Heuer, Zenith, and Hublot to illustrate the positioning of brands and the opportunities as well as the restrictions that this imposes. The accent is on brand consistency.

Find a link to his interview below

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The 65-year-old designer announced that he is telling the story of his colorful career in a racy, music-filled theater show. It is expected to debut in Paris next autumn before going on an international tour. Gaultier said the production, titled "Fashion Freak Show," will combine singing, dancing and acting, and draw on the people who have inspired his designs. Gaultier says the show is not fully written, but about half of the cast and production staff has been selected.

The 815 000 sq ft store on Manhattan's 59th Street has been renovationg its home departments on levels six, seven, and eight. The aim is to make shopping more experiential, comfortable, easier and fun and to recapture the spirit of "Saturday's Generation", the young crowd that flocked to Bloomingdale's in the seventies at weekends as much to shop as to socialise. Renovation will continue with fashion which will be confined to levels two, three and four and no longer carried on five which is being converted to a shoe complex of over 40 000 sqft. The company is "remaining flexible" on leased shops but there has been an increase in leases in luxury leather and ready-to-wear. Management refuses to comment on the possibility of creating a food hall, but some commentators are speculating.

Harrods has begun a £200 million redevelopment project to increase its appeal to overseas shoppers visiting the UK to make the most of the weak pound. The total amount will be spent inside the store over the next three years. Work has already started on the food halls, and the watch room will be extended into the basement via a new marble staircase. Last month, Harrods reported its eighth consecutive year of rising profis with sales reaching the £2bn mark for the first time.

An article in the Financial Times magazine looks at high-end department stores and their future. Quoting The Future Laboratory and other commentators, the article mentions Selfridges, Liberty, Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Saks, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and others, and takes the view that the department store has to become a place where customers will be able to play, live, work, dine, exercise and have fun.

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Figures from the Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday period in the US have been overall positive making retailers confident with regard to Christmas:

• Thanksgiving day online sales were up 18.3% on last year to $2.9bn
• Black Friday sales online reached $5bn, up 16.9%
• Cyber Monday online sales were $6.59bn, an increase of 11.9%
• Over 174 million Americans shopped in stores and online over the period, beating expectations of 164 million
• The average shopper spent a total of $335, with $251 going towards gift purchases

An interesting Fung Global Retail & Tech report considers how much sales densities have in fact changed at US retailers over the past five years, stripping out e-commerce. For some time, commentators and analysts have been arguing that retail is becoming a lower profit business. This has in part been blamed on the lower profitability of e-commerce which has been accounting for an ever-growing share of revenue within companies. The Fung report looks at sales per square metre from brick-and-mortar stores only, and finds that while Home Depot, and Lowe's for example have increased their figures, Nordstrom, Target, Macy's, Kohl's, JC Penney and Sears hhave lost sales. The report calculates how much selling space these companies would have to lose in order to return to the in-store sales densities they enjoyed in 2011. Thus Nordstrom would need to reduce their space by one miilion square feet, and Macy's by 58 million.

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American group Mattel unveiled its first ever hijab-wearing Barbie doll in honor of US Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, who in 2016 became the first American Olympian to wear a headscarf while competing. The doll, part of the toymaker's "Sheroes" collection, is dressed in fencing gear as well as the hijab and will be on sale online from 2018. Barbie has been working hard to make its collection of dolls more diverse in an effort to broaden the brand's appeal, notably through its "Shero" line that honours women who break boundaries (past dolls have included gymnast Gabby Douglas and Selma director Ava DuVernay).

The best way to boost footfall to malls is to offer experiences; but would you assume that those experiences should include libraries? In South Korea, Shinsegae is working hard to boost footfall as the country continues to be one of the world's biggest markets for online shopping. In May it opened a library at the Convention and Exhibition Center (COEX) in Seoul, in order to attract more shoppers to its shopping complex Starfield COEX. Six months down the line, it said that the library has played a major part of drawing in more visitors to the shopping centre and in helping to boost sales at the stores nearby. During the summer it was trending among tourists, with visitors drawn in by the 50,000 books and magazines (Korea's largest collection of magazines with over 600 different titles) and its e-book system. The company has invested KRW0.7m ($0.64m) in the venture over the past six months, with KRW0.1m of that spent on acquiring books and hosting cultural activities, which are clearly key, as they generate instant substantial footfall to the area.

House of Fraser has launched a new localised pop-up concession scheme in some of its branches around the country, as it seeks ways to make use of "dead" space and drive footfall. The scheme involves the department store chain partnering with data-driven tech firm Popertee to invite retailers into its outlets to take pop-up concession space where they can launch their brands and test their products. Popertee's AI technology analyses the customer profile of each store and match it with potential retail start-ups, which then have the opportunity to use some space within House of Fraser stores. The aim is to provide the retail start-ups an outlet in stores with a relevant demographic, while allowing House of Fraser to attract new customers with different pop-up concessions that are customised and match the local demographics. The pop-up scheme has been launched in House of Fraser's Birmingham, Bluewater (Kent), Bristol and Manchester stores, and the department store said it may be rolled out nationally.The deal sees the retail start-ups and House of Fraser both paying Popertee a commission.

Earlier this year, House of Fraser unveiled a new five-year business strategy that had a focus on improving customer experience to attract customers to their bricks-and-mortar stores.This included downsizing its women's fashion department while launching champagne bars, yoga studios, refocusing its customer base and revamping its website to become more omnichannel.

With highest consumer confidence in 23 months, Taiwan department stores are optimistic on revenue. Far Eastern Sogo is aiming for NT$10.6bn, (US$351m) up from NT$10.5bn for the 12-day sale period at its three outlets in Taipei, as the store marks its 30th anniversary. In Taiwan, annual sales in the fourth quarter use discounts, coupons, gift certificates and more to entice customers to shop. One of the main purposes  is to make up the gap between retailers' cumulative revenue and the sales target set at the beginning of the year. Far Eastern Sogo's anniversary promotions come after sales at Taipei 101 Mall, Core Pacific City Mall, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, Uni-Ustyle department stores, and others.

While the "magic of Macy's" appears to have faded a little in recent years, its real estate, consisting of a network of more than 600 stores across the country, is worth an estimated $16 bn, more than the company's market value of $6.4bn. The Macy's flagship on 34th Street in New York, recently/nbsp] renovated at a cost of $400m, alone is worth $3.3 bn. One of the most striking stories recently has been the conversion of much of the company's downtown Seattle store into offices where the new tenant will be Amazon, the very company which is forcing Macy's and other retailers to rethink the need for many of their stores. In January, Macy's named more than 60 stores it was closing which would allow it to invest $250m annually into digital and other growth strategies.

see article with fascinating photos

Walmart has started charging higher prices online than in-store in order to save on shipping costs and push shoppers to physical locations. The company is experimenting with a system that raises prices on items that would otherwise be unprofitable to ship. It is also trying to push bulk purchases to increase order sizes which are more profitable to ship. While the logic of this move is indisputable from a economic point of view, it runs the risk of deterring customers from shopping online since it may appear to betray Walmart's low-price reputation. Walmart has been engaging in an effort to increase its cross-channel business.