Peter Nordstrom, one of three co-presidents forecasts that digital sales could very well represent 50% of company sales in the next five years. Currently, Nordstrom has 26% of sales online. Same store sales at the physical stores fell 4.4% last quarter while rising nearly 20% at its discount Rack chain. Only Neiman Marcus which got a head-start in online sales, has a bigger proportion of online sales with 31%. Online and physical stores feed each other: when Nordstrom opens a new store, online sales there get a boost of 20%. Also 10% of online sales already come from the metro New York area without the benefit of a store. The cross-feed is part of the thinking behind the upcoming full-service Nordstrom store coming to Manhattan, its first in New York City.

UK store Harvey Nichols is finding out how its customers use its mobile services, specifically product pages and menus. Working with user experience (UX) analytics platform ContentSquare, Harvey Nichols will optimise web pages, visitor journeys and promotions thanks to the visual tools of the system. For example, ContentSquare claims to help understand the critical paths to purchase during sales periods, to optimise product placement on listing pages, and analyse user journeys by acquisition channel, using behavioural data and artificial intelligence.

Yet another important data breach: this time revealed  late. Uber has amitted that in 2016, information about 57 million users and drivers was stolen. Instead of disclosing the incident when it was discovered, senior executives decided to pay a ransom of $100 000 to delete the stolen data. Data privacy regulators in the US, UK, and Italy have decided to investigate and a class-action law suit has been filed in California against the company. Uber's action is likely to have an effect on other digital service providers. Sensitivity to the issues is increasing both among customers and among regulators wo are likely to favour robust measures. The implementation of GDPR in Europe next May will have a substantial impact on business. The International Association of Privacy Professionals and EY estimate than members of the Fortune 500 will spend a combined $7.8 billion on compliance measures. And there is more to come: an expanded Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communication (ePrivacy Regulation), which will replace the 2002 ePrivacy Directive, will supplement GDPR withadditional reules targeted at electronic communication services, the use of cookies, online behhavioural advertising, direct marketing, and machine-to-machine communication (the "internet of things").

IADS is launching an Innovation Lab on Cybersecurity and Risk Management next March

innovation lab on cybersecurity

Bon-Ton Stores said it will shutter at least 40 underperforming stores, out of the 260 stores making up its footprint, through 2018. "They are generally the negative cash flow stores that we've talked about, as well as more of our smaller [stores]," Chief Financial Officer Nancy Walsh told analysts. The announcement came as the department store retailer also reported third quarter same-store sales fell 6.6%, largely due to unseasonably warm weather that hurt sales of cold-weather apparel. Sales in the winter apparel category fell by more than one-third, or some 240 basis points, according to Nancy Walsh.

At a time when cities across the US are bidding for Amazon's second headquarters, the company is building a 60 000 m² DC north of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The large structure will create 750 new full-time jobs. When it opens next year, it will be Amazon's seventh facility in Canada.

adidas has launched the first major project to be created at its SPEEDFACTORY facility in Ansbach, Germany. [SPEEDFACTORY is a facility that will allow adidas to explore, test and co-create with consumers, and a factory that uses robots to manufacture sneakers.]

The launch of the AM4 (adidas made for) series heralds a significant moment for the brand in terms of the future of manufacturing. The new AM4 series centers around individually designed and manufactured shoes that adidas will release in six key cities across the globe. London, Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai will have bespoke product created tailored to the unique demands, and using local market insight, of each respective city. Designed with a range of consumer benefits, such as lightweight stability and a far more sustainable product, the AM4 is a further step in what adidas believes will be the future of the industry with SPEEDFACTORY allowing for the creation of state-of-the-art product made for individual needs using athlete data. Each shoe is co-created using athlete data to help shape the design and development process. For example, it rains more frequently in London, and customers often use their sneakers to run to or from work, so Adidas created shoes that are reflective and more waterproof than its typical designs.

AM4PAR, the shoe created for Paris, will follow the AM4LDN launched October 19, before further launches in Los Angeles (AM4LA), New York (AM4NYC), Tokyo (AM4TKY) and Shanghai (AM4SHA) in 2018.

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Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), the department store group that includes Hudson's Bay, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Gilt Groupe and other retail properties in North America and Europe, announced that chief executive officer Jerry Storch will exit the company, effective November 1. Executive chairman Richard Baker will assume the role while the company searches for a new chief executive. After less than three years on the job, Jerry Storch will return his advisory firm, Storch Advisors. Prior to joining HBC in January 2014, Storch had been chairman and ceo of Storch Advisors, and before that, he was chairman and ceo of Toys 'R' Us from 2006 to 2013.

Storch's departure marks one of several recent changes to the executive team at HBC in recent months. HBC International president Don Watros left in September. Edward Record, formerly of J.C. Penney, was named chief financial officer in August. The changes also come during a challenging time : HBC has been suffering losses this year, reporting a net loss of 201 million Canadian dollars, or $162.3 million, for the second quarter on a total sales gain of 1.2 percent, while comparable sales inched up 0.4 percent. Last June, the company announced 2,000 job cuts to save 350 million Canadian dollars annually.

A new Seibu store will open in Kuala Lumpur in 2019, operated by the Sogo (KL) Department Store which has operated Sogo in the city since 1994. In 2000, Sogo Seibu of Japan, the department store arm of Seven and I Holdings granted rights to use their store names in Asian locations which today number around 30. They achieved around 400 billion yen in sales for fiscal 2016. The new Seibu, which has a higher-end image in the region, will open in the Tun Razak exchange, a 70-acre development intended to serve its finance and business centre.

The fierce online battle for luxury Chinese consumers refuses to let up. the largest online luxury retailer in China on the Nasdaq last month, JD.com has opened its own dedicated channel targeting rich Chinese shoppers, called Toplife. Unveiled on Oct. 10, the platform caters to luxury goods of all types — from fashion and accessories to health and beauty, home furnishings and electronics — and, addressing key concerns that high-end labels have over emulating the exclusive nature of the offline experience, promises more control for brands. "Working with Toplife, luxury brands worldwide are now able to directly provide customers throughout China with a true luxury shopping experience previously only associated with high-end offline stores," said Richard Liu, chairman and chief executive officer of JD.com. "Toplife aims to mirror the offline luxury shopping experience in a premium e-commerce experience." To that end, JD.com is enabling brands to control every aspect of their flagship's appearance, allowing 24-hour access to customer service and training fashion consultants to advise on luxury brands. Product sold through Toplife will also be stored in a special warehouse equipped with dust-free sealed spaces, strict temperature and humidity controls, and robotics.

Amazon has acquired a 5% share in Mumbai-based department stores Shoppers Stop. The investment will allow the Indian retailer to add 25% more stores. The company will add 20 more stores in the next four years. It will also allow Amazon to reach into smaller towns in India, in particular through the Amazon experience centres which let customers test products available online. Amazon is keen to gain a head start in India after its failure in China against rival Alibaba. Shoppers Stop will accelerate its revenue from online sales and will gain space in Amazon's fashion segment online.

InterContinenal Hotels Group's 'boutique' brand Hotel Indigo has partnered with e-tail giant Asos for a pretty extensive Asos x Hotel Indigo Edits, a destination-based collection inspired by the seven neighborhoods where the brand is located in the US. The Hotel Indigo brand is expanding fast and aims to offer travellers a "one-of-a-kind boutique hotel experience with each bespoke property inspired by the culture, music, art and design of its surrounding neighbourhoods." ASOS x Hotel Indigo Edits bring these unique travel elements to life through fashion. The duo tapped notable social media influencers to curate a collection that captures the energy of the neighborhoods where you can find a Hotel Indigo. The partnership features seven men's and seven women's collections with around 140 pieces in total. Each edit "transitions seamlessly from day to night, reflecting the destinations that inspired them". Places concerned are Lower East Side Manhattan, LA Downtown, Denver Downtown, Nashville, Alexandria Old Town, Savannah Historic District and El Paso.

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Hyundai department store of Korea has introduced an app which incorporates iris scanning for user identification. It is the first in Korea to adopt this biometric security measure. The app serves Hyundai's shopping sites The Hyundai and Hyundai H Mall. Recent analysis showed that 70% of online revenue came from mobile apps. New customers signing up to the apps have increased by over 30% annually. Logging in using an ID and password takes around 20 seconds compared to logging in with iris recognition which takes 2.3 seconds. Currently only on Galaxy phones, the group is considering adding a facial recognition feature compatible with iPhone X's FaceID.

Upscale French department store Printemps has engaged several projects. Indeed, the retailer will open its first outlet store, in the South of France, marking a new step to meet demand for high-end goods at cheaper prices. The new location, scheduled to open at the end of November, will sell ready-to-wear apparel, shoes and accessories for men and women in a nearly 6,500-square-foot space at the McArthurGlen designer outlet near Aix-en-Provence.

Printemps also recently revamped its Nation store -at the eastern side of Paris- giving space to home decoration chain Maisons du Monde, sports and streetwear retailer Citadium and Japanese brand Uniqlo, which will be offered in a department store for the first time starting November 2017.

Mitra Adiperkasa of Indonesia has announced that its remaining Lotus stores will be closed by the end of October. Three stores will close while two others were shut down in 2016. The end of Lotus does not mean, apparently, less focus on its department store business segment. However, Mitra which operates Sogo, Seibu, Debenhams and Galeries Lafayette stores in Indonesia, has also announced the closing of Debenhams as well. Mitra is the franchise holder for Starbucks, Burger King, Zara, Nine West and other brands.

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Right in the center of town, steps away from the Trevi Fountain and Piazza di Spagna, Rinascente will be opening its second flagship store on October 12, 2017. That's nearly 150 years after the inauguration of its first one in Milan. The building has been carefully restructured over the last 11 years to perfect harmony with the neighborhood, enhancing its precious cultural-historical heritage. The new Rinascente department store is unique in its class, superbly presenting the best of the worlds of fashion, beauty care, design, and gourmet food offerings from Made in Italy's most prestigious brands and their international counterparts on eight floors.

read the description - floor by floor

Stacey Cartwright, CEO of Harvey Nichols in London will be changing role from 1 January 2018 and becoming Deputy Chairman under Chairman and owner Dickson Poon. Day-to-day management will be handled jointly by two new co-chief operating officers Daniela Rinaldi and Manju Malhotra. The former is currently group commercial director, and the latter, group finance director. There is already some discussion among commentators about the wisdom of joint leadership of the Harvey Nichols stores.

Shiseido is launching a new brand of skin-care and body-care products targeting Japanese Millennials. Called Recipist, the line will include a total of 27 products and will go on sale from Nov. 1. The new brand will target "digital natives," namely women in their early 20s. In a release, Shiseido said these consumers have fewer skin troubles than previous generations, but that sometimes their skin's balance is disrupted due to factors related to lifestyle or insufficient care. Derived from the word "recipe," the brand name is meant to invoke a sense of empowerment among young women, the idea being that customers can create unique, individual lives and beauty. Recipist will only be sold online only, through Shiseido's own e-commerce platform and on other sites such as Amazon. Marketing efforts will be centered around social media, since Millennials in Japan tend to live their lives through their smartphones.

The Netherlands-based company Hema is for sale. The owners since 2007, Lion Capital of London, acquired Hema from Maxeda for €1.1 billion and have tried to sell it several times since. In 2016, Hema had sales of €1.2 billion, up 4.9% and an operational profit of € 28.9 million, thanks mainly to improvements in the Netherlands, and growth in France, the UK and Spain. Hema which now operates over 700 stores in 7 countries, mostly in city centres, offers home goods, tableware, stationery, make-up some food as well as a selection of clothing. The format was created as a variety store in 1926 by the owners of De Bijenkorf department store, just as similar formats were being created in other countries by department stores.

Hudson's Bay Co.'s real estate joint venture is considering selling the Hudson's Bay flagship in Vancouver, Canada. The site is part of the joint venture formed between HBC and the RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust. HBC has hired CBRE and Brookfield Financial Real Estate Group to explore the possible sale of the Vancouver property located at 674 Granville Street. The Hudson's Bay store has a long term lease there and has recently undergone renovations. Additionally, the joint venture expects to close on a $200 million mortgage on the same property, the proceeds of which would be distributed on a pro-rata basis to the joint venture partners. The mortgage is expected to be for a term of four years at a rate of prime plus 1 percent and has no prepayment penalty in the event of a sale of the property. BMO Capital Markets Real Estate Inc. is acting as the exclusive advisor on this financing.

The news follows last week deal by HBC to sell the Lord & Taylor flagship on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to WeWork, the office sharing company, for $850 million. The 650,000-square-foot Lord & Taylor flagship will continue in the entire building through the 2018 holiday season and be downsized to 150,000 square feet. The site will serve as the New York headquarters for WeWork. That deal was designed to help HBC pay off debt, improve the balance sheet and increase shareholder value. "We are exploring a sale of this flagship property as the Vancouver real estate market has appreciated significantly over the past several years. While no decision to sell has been made, we continue to explore opportunistic transactions to enhance shareholder value," stated Richard Baker, HBC's governor, executive chairman and interim chief executive officer. "We are committed to operating our Hudson's Bay store at this location and any possible sale would include the continued operation of Hudson's Bay at this property."

The RioCan-HBC joint venture owns or controls ten flagship properties in major cities across Canada, including Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, and Montreal, as well as a 50 percent interest in Oakville Place and Georgian Mall. Formed in 2015, the joint venture has a mandate to explore future acquisitions that would grow and diversify its real estate portfolio. As of June 30, 2017, the joint venture was owned 88.1 percent by HBC and 11.9 percent by RioCan.

One of Britain's oldest department stores, Debenhams, is to open its first Australian store in St Collins Lane in Melbourne's central business district (CBD) in mid-October. The historic UK retailer will take up the lower ground level of the old Australia on Collins site that once housed an expansive food court. Shoppers can expect a curated collection of fashion, beauty and homewares, including the Designers at Debenhams range with labels such as Preen, Jasper Conran, Julien Macdonald and Roksanda Ilincic.

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John Lewis' tradesmen service program it set to expand into six other cities as part of the next trial phase. The department store chain's Home Solutions service has already been trialled in Milton Keynes and from September 12 it will be available in Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Gloucester and Taunton. The service lets customers book various John Lewis-approved tradespeople online, such as plumbers, gardeners and electricians. "Our customers often ask us if we can help them with tasks in their homes," John Lewis Partnership development director Tom Athron said.  "We have taken a lot of care to find professionals who will deliver service to the standard that people expect from John Lewis. "We know how difficult it can be to find the time in our busy lives to source trusted trade professionals, and hope our customers find the service helpful." John Lewis recruits tradespeople on the website via a six-stage process, including phone and face-to-face interviews, on-the-spot visits and inductions to the Home Solutions service. Customers can book the tradespeople via the app, website or customer call centre and they will also receive a one-year guarantee from John Lewis on all work done.

A recent report based on US Census figures shows, apparently, that more stores have been opened then closed in the US in 2017. The numerous articles highlighting closures by big-name companies are misrepresenting the facts: for each company closing a store, 2.7 companies are opening stores. Over 2017 so far, there has been a net increase in store openings of 4000. The net increase apparently also applies to the department store sector. The store is still as relevant as ever.

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Illustration 'Myth of store closures?' (png - 0.09Mo)

Amazon made another move into physical stores with news that the company's tech products will be available in 1,000 sq ft Amazon concessions inside branches of Kohl's. Kohl's stores will host the Amazon Smart Home Experience concessions from next month, selling products such as the Echo voice-activated device, the Fire tablet and Amazon's other gadgets. The new stores will be interactive rather than just showing us piles of product in boxes and the experience aims to show how smart home products can simplify home management, entertainment, and security. The stores will be staffed with Amazon's own sales associates, and shoppers will be able to book an Amazon employee visit to their home for installation, or simply to suggest products that would suit their lifestyle. The customers can also use Amazon Home Services, which offers them access to pre-approved local experts to help with things like plumbing.

After a series of media stories in the UK about the sexism and stereotyping of children's clothing (such as T-shirts with supposedly boys' or girls' slogans), John Lewis has caused another sensation by going to the other extreme and removing gender-specific labels altogether from its brand of children's clothes. John Lewis own-brand children clothing will now simply say "Girls & Boys" or "Boys & Girls." The company has also launched a new unisex clothing line for children, featuring dinosaur print dresses and spaceship tops, and introduced unisex babywear earlier this year. This move, while praised by many parents, has also attracted attention on social media where it is accused of succumbing to political correctness.