According to Reuters and other sources, Hudson's Bay is in talks with Signa of Austria over a joint venture with Karstadt, owned by Signa. Earlier this year, Hudson's Bay rejected a €3bn bid for Kaufhof. The joint venture would involve Karstadt acquiring half of Kaufhof's property company and 51% of its operating company with the option to buy the rest at a later date. In the meantime, labour representatives are in discussion with Kaufhof management on a restructuring deal.

John Lewis has warned that its 2018-19 profit would be substantially below the previous year's level. Although the group appears to have weathered a difficult environment better than rivals Marks & Spencer, Debenhams or House of Fraser, the department stores in particular have been a drag on profits. Several shops would be closed, including four Waitrose convenience shops and a small supermarket. The Waitrose in Camden, London, a wealthy neighbourhood, will be sold to Aldi, underlining what the group called a "period of generational change". The plan "It's your business 2028", announced three years ago, applies to the 353 Waitrose stores as well as to the group's 50 John Lewis stores. Bonuses to "partners", the 85 000 employees of the company, were drastically lowered last year and will probably be so again this year as the company expects to maintain investments at last year's level. John Lewis Partnership is to continue developing its strengths, quality own-label and quality service as these are fundamentals on which the competition is weak. To do so, however, it will need to maintain staff loyalty. In line with this aim, there will be a global rebrand with the divisions labelled "Waitrose and Partners" and "John Lewis and Partners"./nbsp]

Illustration 'John Lewis warns on profits 1' (png - 0.07Mo)

Illustration 'John Lewis warns on profits 2' (png - 0.05Mo)

The Financial Times has published another story on millennials arguing that this "generation" is challenging large groups to cater for their taste in local, natural products. Diageo, Danone and Unilever, for example, are chasing consumers aged between 22 and 37 who are more health-conscious than their parent were at the same age. Sales of food claiming to be organic grew by 10% last year in the US and an increasing number of consumers are demanding "adult non-alcoholic drinks".

read article "How millennials' taste for 'authenticity' is disrupting powerful food brands"

At a recent NRF conference, former White House CIO, TV star and company founder Theresa Payton argued that individuals and companies should be proactive about protecting themselves online. As we get better at it, attackers work harder to get in. After the breaches and leaks last year and this, she says that "a small investment in security can really go a long way". There are too many outdated systems and authentification methods being used, and combining investigative techniques with new technology can protect businesses without sacrificing convenience for consumers.

watch speech by Theresa Payton on cybersecurity

Macy's warned customers of its e-commerce sites that their data has been breached. The security incident involved "unauthorized access to personal information" from late April to mid-June, according to the notice from Michael Gatio, president of Macy's credit and customer services. Macy's did not specify how many customer accounts were affected. The retailer's cyberthreat alert tools identified suspicious logins to "certain" customer profiles on June 11. The company said an unauthorized third party gained access to customers' first and last names, full addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, birthdays and credit card numbers with expiration dates. After opening an investigation, Macy's blocked those customers' accounts until they could update their passwords.

r3440_9_iads_says_goodbye_to_liaison_officer.jpg

Last month, the IADS team said goodbye to a veteran Liaison Officer, Anne Lechiguero, who is retiring. Anne (third from the left), personal assistant of Galeries Lafayette's Merchandise Director, started as a Liaison Officer for the ACI (old IADS Merchandise Group), before it joined the IADS in Paris. Anne has been working for Galeries Lafayette for 40 years, and been a LO for roughly 20 years.

She has been, in many ways, an example of how to make the most of IADS membership by:

• Informing new managers in her company about the IADS
• Organising registrations for IADS meetings and activities
• Giving accurate information and news on her company to the IADS office
• Coordinating responses to questions from other IADS members and the IADS office

Her efficiency and organisation skills as well as her sensitivity and humour have made it a real pleasure to work with Anne over the years. The entire IADS team wishes her well in the future and welcomes her successor as Liaison Officer for Galeries Lafayette, Christine Le Flecher, HR Director and Head of Talent Management.

Apple is bringing its latest retail design to Italy for the first time with the opening of Apple Piazza Liberty. The flagship is designed to revitalize a piazza in the centre of Milan, complete with a public plaza and a store below; it is located just off the Corso Vittorio Emanuele. The entrance to the store is designated by a beautiful glass fountain and the adjacent plaza is open to the public 24 hours a day and will host events year-round.

'To work within one of Italy's historic piazzas is both a great responsibility and wonderful challenge,' Jony Ive, Apple's chief design officer explains. 'We combined two fundamental elements of the Italian piazza — water and stone — adding a glass portal that creates a multi-sensory experience as visitors enter the store through a cascading fountain that seems to envelop them.'

Apple Piazza Liberty features the updated Apple Store layout with areas that include Genius Grove, The Forum, and The Avenue, aka parts of the store dedicated to activities like support, classes, and shopping.

Milan, with its rich history of art, entertainment and creativity, is well-matched to Apple's commitment to learning, creativity and connection. Apple Piazza Liberty, with its focus on community cultivation, will provide a local backdrop to the Today at Apple programme, which offers free hourly sessions on photography, filmmaking, music, coding, design.

By selling affordable assemble-yourself furniture on mass scale, Ikea bears some responsibility for today's throw-away culture, where products can easily be chucked out and replaced with something new. But these days the company is leading the way on tackling environmental challenges. "Becoming truly circular means meeting people's changing lifestyles, prolonging the life of products and materials and using resources in a smarter way," Ikea Sustainability Manager Lena Pripp-Kovac said in the statement. "To make this a reality, we will design all products from the very beginning to be re-purposed, repaired, reused, resold and recycled." As part of its latest push, Ikea will remove all single-use plastic products from the Ikea range globally by 2020 and increase the proportion of plant-based choices in its food offering. The largest Ikea franchisee, with 363 stores in 29 markets, also plans to achieve zero-emissions home deliveries and expand its home solar-energy solutions offering to all its current markets by 2025.

Breuninger of Stuttgart, Germany, has announced that it has introduced two new Chinese mobile payment platforms, Alibaba's Alipay, and Tencent's WEchat Pay. It is the first German department store to offer the two in all its stores. Last year, 12.4 million East Asian tourists visited Europe, a figure forecast to increase to just under 21 million by 2022. For the company it is a logical step to improving customer shopping experience.

press release on breuninger launching Alipay and Wechat Pay (in german)

After the successful launch of its merchandise-free concept store in Los Angeles' West Hollywood neighborhood in October 2017, Nordstrom is planning to add two more such stores in the LA market. "Nordstrom Local is something that you're going to hear more about, and we think we have the underpinnings of something very special there," Co-president Blake Nordstrom said. The new stores, located in Brentwood and Downtown LA, would likely be similar to the current concept shop, which is focused squarely on services like buy online, pickup in store in addition to tailoring, stylist consulting and even nail services. Depending on its success, the concept may expand to other metropolitan areas like Manhattan.

press release 'Nordstrom Deepens Growth Strategy Through Local Market Focus'

Cosmetics brand Bluemercury, acquired by Macy's for $210 million in 2015, will open about 55 new stores through 2019 –maintaining  the chain's pace of expansion. The plans underscore how Bluemercury has become a key part of the department store's strategy to defend its turf from online competitors and the rise of chains such as Ulta Beauty Inc. and Sephora. The growth will bring Bluemercury's store count to about 215. Most of the new standalone stores will be in areas where the brand doesn't already have a presence, according to Bluemercury co-founder Barry Beck. Bluemercury's comparable sales growth is in the high-double digits and the company wants to use technology to maintain that pace […]. It's [also] developing phone-recognition software to identify customers as they enter a store and then sending them product suggestions based on recent purchases.

After Macy's outgoing Chief Financial Officer Karen Hoguet said earlier this year that the beauty division "was a business that needed to be rethought," the company has made some progress. It said cosmetics sales gained traction in the first quarter, helping revenue beat estimates.

Full article by Bloomberg "Macy's Plans 55 New Bluemercury Stores"

Casper and Nordstrom launched a pop up, available through Aug. 26, in select Nordstrom stores across North America and online. Sleep-In@Nordstrom features the original Casper mattress, the ergonomic Casper Wave mattress, Casper's pillow and sheets, and a dog bed. The shop also exclusively launched Casper's newest product, Casper Airy Linen Sheets, designed for hot summer nights. In addition to offering Casper's products, Sleep-In@Nordstrom features an assortment of home and wellness products for morning, evening and sleep such as skincare, pyjamas and accessories, curated by Nordstrom's team.

press release "Sleep-In@Nordstrom Featuring Casper"

Against a widespread view that department stores are in decline, an article in "The Conversation" looks at some of the department stores around the world who are doing it right. It mentions in particular Galeries Lafayette, Selfridges, Bon Marche, Mitsukoshi (see picture of roof garden), Liberty, Fortnum & Mason, and emphasises experience, community, social shopping, uniqueness, and brand.

see article "Department stores are not doomed"

r3433_9_top_shopping_centres_in_europe_2.png

According to Global Retail News, the top shopping centres in Europe were those in the table. Ten out of the fifteen belonged to Unibail Rodamco Westfield and showed an increase or relatively stable traffic. It is worth noting that Westfield London (in sixth place) has opened an extension recently and can therefore be expected to show a big increase in the next figures.

(click on the pic for a clearer view of results)

David Jones is spending big to deep dive into luxury and excitement. spending tourists. The A$200m refurbishment of its Elizabeth Street store in Sydney will include a wider range of luxury products from high end boutique brands. The redevelopment, funded by the A$360m sale of the chain's Market Street store in 2016, will see it expanding from eight floors to 12, with the offering grouped across six product 'worlds'. A key part of the redevelopment will convert the seventh and eight floors into a champagne and dining room overlooking a luxury shoe department that will be the biggest in the country. Three floors of womenswear will also be mixed with hairdressing salons, blow-dry bars and pop-up stores. Two levels of menswear will also feature a whiskey bar and a barber shop. It's part of a wider plan to reinvent the 12-storey store, which will also upgrade its beauty offer, accessories and food and wine assortment. The two lowest levels will be converted to a combined homewares, food and dining area, based on the food concept rolled out at its Bondi Junction store. David Jones chief executive David Thomas said the widened luxury offer was designed to make the 50,000 sq m department store a global tourist destination, similar to Harrods in London and Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Upgrade works started end of 2017 and should be completed late 2019. David Thomas reckons he will start to see a return on the A$200m investment from 2020.

The Kroger Co. launched OptUP, a data-driven app designed to help shoppers make more informed, healthier purchase decisions about food. The new app is part of the grocery giant's recently launched "Wellness Your Way" initiative around providing customers more information about nutrition, medication and lifestyle. OptUP lets consumers "score" their groceries based on health knowledge of each product. Then they can assess the overall score of their cart for a higher-level look at the health of their purchases. Other app features include personalized product recommendations, scan-and-search features to find nutrition facts and product alternatives and the ability to connect to digital carts for curbside pickup or delivery.

press release "Kroger Launches OptUP App"

John Lewis will launch its largest own-brand label, called John Lewis & Partners, this autumn, in the retailer's "most significant fashion investment to date". The 800-piece womenswear collection will feature 300 designs created in-house by the John Lewis & Partners Design Studio team. John Lewis & Partners features clean, simple styles in bold, bright colours, alongside tonal neutrals, that shoppers can mix and match. Key pieces include statement outerwear, cashmere jumpers and all-leather bags and footwear. The first autumn collection will be released beginning of September.

press release "John Lewis reveals largest fashion collection in its history"

Moreover, John Lewis is set to undergo a radical overhaul of its stores in a bid to combat falling sales and profit decline. The department store retailer is planning to turn 15 of its existing shops as "pilot stores" from this September. These stores will experiment with events, classes, personal stylists and front-of-house concierge services. For its Oxford Street flagship in London, this includes plans for a rooftop bar and pop-up cinema, as well as major refurbishment of its womenswear floor and a new shoe room in partnership with Kurt Geiger. John Lewis is also mulling a rooftop bar and pop-up cinema space at its Southampton store – one of its 15 pilot shops.

H&M has launched a line of rainbow colored and LGBT pride inspired clothing titled "Love For All", including t-shirts, jackets, shorts and socks for men and women. Slogans like "pride", "united", and "equality" are featured on several items. Ten percent of the retail sales from the collection will be donated to the United Nations Free and Equal campaign against homophobia and transphobia. The H&M Love for All collection is available online since 31st May and in selected stores.

Hudson's Bay Co. plans to shutter its Manhattan Lord & Taylor flagship after announcing last year it had sold the Fifth Avenue real estate to coworking startup WeWork and initially planned to open a downsized Lord & Taylor store in its place. Additionally, the department store retailer plans to close up to 10 Lord & Taylor stores through 2019 to balance its physical presence with its digital efforts.

This news comes at the same time of the announcement to sell Gilt to Rue La La.

press release on hudson's bay closing lord & taylor

Iconic crayon company Crayola  has launched Crayola Beauty, a line of eyeshadows, blushes, mascaras, and more, in conjunction with beauty and fashion brand ASOS. The products are sold exclusively at the retailer's website. The 58 product-line is available in 95 shades and range from $15 to $40. Every product is vegan, cruelty-free and the crayons can be used on your eyes, cheeks or lips, making them multi-tasking make-up products. The collection also include brushes, palettes and mascara.

The US paper, Women's Wear Daily (WWD), has published an interview of Nicolas Houze, CEO of Galeries Lafayette and IADS president. He talks about the international plans of the company (20 stores by 2025), its digital growth (now 10% of sales of the Galeries Lafayette stores), the recent and planned stores (Prado in Marseille and the forthcoming Champs Elysées store with architect Bjarke Ingels). The department store is not dead. Its future rests on three pillars: modernisation, digitalisation, and internationalisation.

interview of Nicolas houze from WWD

Debenhams has issued its third profit warning of the year, saying that annual pre-tax profits would be between £35m and £40m, below previous estimates of £50.3m. Management pointed to "exceptionally difficult times in UK retailing". Like-for-like sales from stores fell by 1.7% in the 15 weeks to 16 June. Digital sales grew 16% over the same period. There has been speculation about Debenhams selling a small printing firm it owns called Magenta. Other sales may be on the cards.

Press release on debenhams third profit warning

Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group have announced the launch of a new "family entertainment centre" concept designed specifically for malls. Called CREACTIVE, the retail-forward attraction is being described by the company as an "immersive, creative and participative family experience, where people can stretch their imagination, flex their muscles, explore newfound circus skills, and take a bow on the virtual Cirque du Soleil stage." The first indoor CREACTIVE family entertainment centre is scheduled to open t a Toronto-area mall in September 2019, in a partnership deal with real estate firm Ivanhoé Cambridge. The centre will be about 2,200 square metres (24,000 square feet), enough space for Cirque du Soleil to teach circus-inspired activities such as bungee jumping, aerial parkour, trampolines, mask design, juggling, dance and more. Discussions are ongoing for additional locations in Canada.

See press release on 'cirque du soleil launching in canadian malls'

Alexander McQueen, who took his own life at the age of 40 in 2010, has already had a hugely successful exhibition about him and his work in London and New York, "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty". He is now the subject of a highly-praised film documentary by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, McQueen. It is the moving story of a working-class boy from East London with an original talent, who started as a tailor's apprentice in Saville Row before getting mentored into the big league fashion world. As one reviewer has put it, "the hysterical intensity of his work, publicity and the loneliness of command took its toll, childhood memories of abuse were never entirely expunged, he was deeply depressed by becoming HIV-positive and by the deaths of Blow (his mentor) and his mother to whom he was utterly devoted".

Released in June in the UK, to be released , in July in the US.