As part of a strategy to attract more shoppers and make its stores more exciting, Macy's is betting on two things: a roof-top, and the fashion assortment. The retailer is considering plans to develop the rooftop of its massive 2.2 million-square-foot iconic Herald Square flagship store, adding restaurants and open green space. The rooftop idea is meant to encourage people to meander through the store either on their way up to or down from the attractions on the roof.

As for the assortment, Macy's plans on delivering better fashion. Part of this effort will focus on adding special lines of Macy's-exclusive products -- known as capsule collections -- from national brands such as Levi Strauss & Co. and Ralph Lauren. Macy's Chief Executive Officer Jeff Gennette sees 40% of the department store's inventory as unique to Macy's in 2020, up from 29% today. "It's a collaboration," he said. "Our bigger issue is not jumping at every exclusive opportunity that comes our way from our vendors, it's being selective." The company also is building up its e-commerce site and rolling out its discount division, Backstage, in an effort to drive more traffic into stores. Macy's is also trimming its catalog of products, trying to edit down its assortment to reduce clutter and remove items that duplicate each other. Gennette wants fewer distractions for shoppers, who he believes desire clearer choices. He also said the company is considering the brand's appeal to international consumers, with a particular focus on China, where Macy's has a partnership with Alibaba's Tmall platform.

Myer department store of Australia is testing an outlet format in Frankston, 50km from Melbourne. Modelled on the Nordstrom Rack idea, it is a channel for unwanted stock from surrounding flagships as well as offering a selection of specific merchandise. The dominating colour is yellow, and the name is "Myer Clearance". The idea is also to support the standards of the premium stores. Myer has plans for one such store for each state.

German discounter Aldi Süd opened its first pop-up restaurant in Cologne, Germany. Located in the Mediapar office zone, this Aldi Bistro concept covers 90 sq.m with 50 seats. The service is created by locking eight containers around a roof terrace. Aldi Bistro sells a daily menu priced at €7.99 for three months. This includes a starter, a main course and a dessert that changes daily. Menus are sourced exclusively from Aldi stores. Depending on the success of this pilot, other units could open in Germany. According to Felix Muxel, C.E.O. of Nymphenburg Consultancy in München, the turnover of Aldi in Germany reached €28.3 billion in 2016, up by 1.4%.

For the world's largest furniture retailer Ikea, which achieved sales of €34.2 billion in the year to August 2016, +7%, the food business has become an unexpected source of business growth. After pilots with stand-alone pop-up restaurants in European capitals such as London (Shoreditch, Westfield Stratford), Paris and Oslo (Norway), Ikea is now considering opening permanent restaurants offering "formal catering at an affordable price". At the global level, Ikea's grocery sales drove 5.4% of the group's business last year, expanding by 8.3% year-on-year, exceeding the growth rate of furniture. Ikea is upgrading restaurant areas, including higher-end materials (lighting, furniture), introducing table service and reinventing the menus with local products, fresh bread, vegan recipes and sustainable ingredients. In the U.S.A., 30% of Ikea's visitors only use the restaurants and do not buy furniture products.

Illustration 'Discount retailers embrace stand-alone restaurants' (jpg - 0.13Mo)

Hudson's Bay is starting a "rationalisation" process announced in February. Some 2000 positions will be eliminated, including some at senior staff level. According to HBC, its "Transformation Plan" will realise more than $350 million in annual savings when it is fully implemented by end 2018. In the meantime, $170 m will be saved in the 2017 fiscal year. Among other things, there will be two leadership teams, one focused on Hudson's Bay in Canada, and another to accelerate growth at Lord & Taylor. Alison Colville will be president of Hudson's Bay while Liz Rodbell, who previously managed both, will focus on Lord & Taylor. Also digital functions will be coordinated across the company. During the last fiscal year, consolidated comparable sales decreased overall by 1.7% and overall net loss was $221 m versus $97 m the year before.

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Selfridges has won the World's Best Department Store Campaign 2017 for its 'EveryBODY' campaign at the World Department Store Forum, held in Toronto this month. The 'EveryBODY' was a multi-faceted campaign to mark the opening of the Body Studio at Selfridges London, a 37,000 square foot in-store concept offering over 150 brands and more than 30,000 different styles across lingerie, swimwear, and hosiery. The campaign was shot by acclaimed fashion photographer Norbert Schoerner and co-created by award-winning Royal Ballet choreographer Wayne McGregor to project diversity, inclusivity and the concept of togetherness, as well as to celebrate the beauty and strength of the body. The annual award recognises the role of in-store campaigns for department stores, to create footfall, increase conversion rates and sales, as well as to connect with existing and new customers. Selfridges was up against LaRinascente in Italy and Myer in Australia for the award.

Supermodel Heidi Klum is to launch a fashion range exclusively with discount supermarket Lidl later this year through all 650 UK stores and across Europe and the US. A collection designed with her own "characteristic style" it promises to be "high end but affordable". No other details of the range have been released so far. Klum said: "Lidl is known for making quality products at affordable prices and I'm proud to partner with them on this fashion collaboration. I had so much fun designing the pieces in this collection and can't wait for you to see it. I hope you love it as much as I do."

Rumours have been flying about interested parties in Neiman Marcus stores of Dallas, Texas. The latest and most persistent has been Hudson's Bay. However, they are said to be still too far apart on price. Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought the company in 2013 for $6 billion but are struggling to carry its $4.7 bn debt load. They originally planned an IPO but abandoned the idea in January. There would now appear to be some interest by Majid Al-Futtaim of Dubai. The deal with HBC was made more complicated by the move in March to shift Mytheresa online business in Germany and three stores into "unrestricted subsidiaries". Real estate firm Related Cos. Is trying to find some clarity also since it has signed up Neiman Marcus as an anchor for its Hudson Yards Mall on Manhattan's West Side.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Nordstrom could go private again after 39 years as a public company. Members of the founding Nordstrom family have formed a group looking at this possibility as they navigate the slowdown in sales across the industry. The family group holds more than a third of the stock and the move would require them to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares. There is no guarantee that an offer would be made or accepted by the company. The prospect of a buyout sent the shares in Nordstrom up by 18%, giving the company a market value of $8bn. Nordstrom has seen better results than many recently but has not been immune since same-store sales have fallen in four of the five last quarters and shares have also gone down recently.

Céline Dion's much-anticipated lifestyle brand, which is simply titled the Céline Dion Collection, will debut exclusively in stores and online for Nordstrom in August. The affordable handbags, luggage and small accessories collection, which Dion has helped design, has about 50 pieces that are meant to reflect the singer's elegant yet practical style. Retail prices range from $58 to $298; luggage will be sold online separately for $158 to $478.

Amazon has apparently patented a delivery label which acts as a parachute, allowing packages to be dropped from drones to their delivery destination. Thanks to a system of cords, a parachute, a breakaway cover, and possibly a harness to keep everything in place, the label could be applied to a package. It would be available in different sizes, according to the senior technical program manager for Prime Air, listed as the inventor on the patent applied for in August 2015.

London's iconic department store, Fortnum & Mason, has unveiled a charity art installation by photographer David Bailey in its famous Piccadilly windows. Home to 400 bronze tiger sculptures for 10 days, the installation was created by Bailey and Pangolin Editions to highlight the plight of the endangered Sumatran tiger. The figures are available to buy in-store and online. As the individual tigers are sold, they will be removed from the window display, diminishing the artwork and demonstrating the speed with which this critically-endangered species might disappear from the planet.

Bailey is best known for his fashion and portrait photography, having photographed the likes of Mick Jagger, Kate Moss and the Kray brothers. He first burst onto the scene in the 1960s, an exciting and buzzing time in London. He is attributed with not only capturing but also contributing to the culture of the "Swinging Sixties".

A number of companies that appeared to benefit from a takeover by private equity companies at a gentler time for fashion retail are finding themselves heading into an uncertain future dragging along billions of debt that is growing more unmanageable. According to WWD, this is the case with Neiman Marcus, J. Crew, Sears, The Limited and others. The Limited, debt-laden and owned by Sun Capital liquidated in January. Wet Seal owned by Versa Capital also liquidated. Rue 21 is struggling under the ownership of Apax Partners and closing several hundred stores. Gymboree, taken private by Bain Capital in 2010 in a deal estimated at $1.8 billion, is a potential bankruptcy. Neiman Marcus, which passed from TPG and Warburg Pincus to Ares and Canada Pension Plan in 2013, is now laden with $4.6 billion in debt. Hudson's Bay is apparently interested but the deal is complicated by Neiman's move to cordon off Mytheresa.com and three stores away from lenders. While there have been some successes such as David's Bridal, Cole Haan and Quiksilver, where the investors have cut costs, boosted margin's and sometimes switched business model, there are many failures, especially when growth is not happening. Pershing Square Capital admits that its biggest failures were Borders, Target and JC Penney, where it replaced Mike Ullman with Ron Johnson. The private equity model, it is sometimes argued, was intended for industrial companies with a different set of physical assets, when retailers have almost none once you have taken care of the stores. However, it is not likely to stop soon with the high number of high-profile distressed companies in the US today.

Illustration 'Private equity is probably bad for US retail' (jpg - 0.05Mo)

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Ian Rogers (see photo) and his team of 60 people have been working for 18 months to create an LVMH multi-brand luxury e-commerce site. Now 24 Sèvres, named after the street that Le Bon Marche is on, will go live next month. It is a crowded market including Yoox Net-a-Porter, FarFetch, MatchesFashion, as well as the more recent entrant Style.com from Condé Nast. For LVMH, which owns 70 brand names such as Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Fendi and Givenchy, as well as Le Bon Marche department store, it is an obvious step, especially since Le Bon Marche is already a multi-brand physical retailer. However, there was an earlier failure when the site eLuxury closed in 2009.

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Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle brand has teamed up with Nordstrom to bring a ton of Goop goodies to its stores via Pop-In@Nordstrom. Goop-In@Nordstrom will feature wellness-focused products curated by Paltrow's team, including apparel, accessories, beauty, and home. Each shop will be merchandised as an enclosed living space and will translate Goop's holistic approach to wellness into a tangible experience, with "products mostly fitting into one of three categories: what we put on our bodies, what we put in our bodies, and how we treat our bodies," Goop announced in a statement. The collaboration marks the first time Goop has worked with a major retailer in this capacity, and also the first time the brand will have a concurrent retail presence in multiple markets at once. Goop-In@Nordstrom will run from May 12 to June 25 in select stores and online as well.

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Saks Fifth Avenue unveiled The Wellery concept shop, a first-of-its-kind space offering over 16,000 square feet of immersive experiences dedicated to wellness. The new Saks offer is located on the second floor of the retailer's New York City Fifth Avenue flagship and serves up a curated edit of the products, classes and services "for living a healthier and more balanced life." It is a "lifestyle-centric shopping destination for today's experience-seeking consumer," the company said. It represents 22 individual spaces offering fitness classes and equipment, women's and men's activewear and athleisure lines, and skincare products and treatments, thus neatly mixing the fashion and beauty elements. Like some other department store concept initiatives, it's not permanent and will be open until the end of October.

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The first-ever Nordstrom New York flagship is set to open in phases, beginning with the retailer's first-ever stand-alone men's store next spring, a solid year and a half before the women's location. The 47,000-square-foot space will house men's apparel, shoes and grooming for a range of budgets and occasions. "We're approaching our New York Flagship product strategy completely differently than we have anywhere else," said Paige Thomas, Nordstrom EVP and GMM of Men's. "The product will be very purposeful and curated to serve a New York global customer." She hinted there would be brands not typically associated with Nordstrom, but said they would be revealed closer to the opening. The company also plans to go above and beyond when it comes to creating a modern shopping experience that's unique to the New York location and that reflects this new emphasis on menswear. Nordstrom's Vice President of Creative Projects Olivia Kim will curate a special project for it; there will be a personal stylist experience; the store will have a "digital infrastructure that will enable a personalized smart store"; and there will be multilingual sales associates to accommodate international travellers.

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Marks & Spencer of the UK has appointed Archie Norman, the 63-year old retail veteran, as its new chairman, lifting the retailer's shares by 6%. Norman was part of the team that established and built general merchandise Kingfisher in the 1980s, helped to revive food retailer Asda in the 1990s, and will receive an annual salary of £600 000 for the part-time post. He is well-connected having spent 8 years as a Conservative member of Parliament.

M&S has also announced that it has hired Jill McDonald from Halfords to head the clothing division, the most troubled part of the company for some time.

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Galeries Lafayette announced the opening of their first flagship in Istanbul, in partnership with the DEMSA group, a Turkish leader in the fashion and retail industries. Located in the prestigious Emaar Square shopping mall, with a surface area of 9,500 sqm, the store offers a complete range of products from accessible to luxury covering all sectors of fashion, accessories, home and beauty. A modern cupola, architectural symbol of Galeries Lafayette Haussmann flagship store in Paris, overhang the entire store.

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Pure player Missguided is putting digital centre stage in its new store at the Bluewater Shopping Centre outside London. It is described as the "ultimate customer experience, with social media blurring the lines between physical and digital while creating a two-way conversation with the target customer". It will promote "instagrammable moments". The store will also have two floor-to-ceiling screens and will add hundreds of new lines to the assortment every week. One commentator has said that first the retail industry was disrupted by pure-play e-commerce companies, now Missguided has flipped the model on its head by showing how high-street shopping can be revolutionized by technology.

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Rooftops are becoming hot property in Seoul as residents learn to enjoy the outdoors without the street noise and dust. Shinsegae has turned the rooftop of its store in Daegu into a jungle-themed park which has attracted around 8000 people a day. Gardens have also appeared on the top of the Gangnam and Uijeongbu stores. Lotte has a sports-themed rooftop park at its Cheongnyangni location in northeastern Seoul with a small basketball and football court for children. Department stores can attract more customers without giving up selling space or restaurant space inside, and can make more money by including the roof area for top-floor renters, or by leasing the roof separately.

The U.S. department store Saks Fifth Avenue opened The Vault, a new jewelry destination and the third retail location to open in Greenwich, Connecticut, in seven months. The new store joins the 10022-SHOE Greenwich shoe store and The Collective contemporary store both on 200 Greenwich Avenue. The elegant freestanding store covers 600-sq.m GLA, i.e. about 100 sq.m larger than the jewelery sections within Saks. It houses Bvlgari, Chopard, de Grisogono, Graff and Repossi concessions of about 25 sq.m each and two private viewing rooms (with  services of jewelery personalization and repair). It offers a wide range, from accessible jewelery to one-of-a-kind pieces, such as a US$1.5 million sapphire ring. Marc Metrick, President of Saks Fifth Avenue, said in 2015, "I am passionate about our core strategy of category dominance – providing a better, more authoritative assortment that allows Saks to be bigger than any one brand – and this additional space in Greenwich furthers our mission to do just that."

This store completes a complex of four stand-alone Saks specialty stores located in the same area. Saks also runs freestanding women's and men's stores in Manhattan (Brookfield Place).

Illustration 'Saks opens The Vault in Greenwich' (jpg - 0.06Mo)

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An exhibition at Milan's Royal Palace running until 24 September celebrates the 100th anniversary of La Rinascente department store. The concept and exhibition are curated by Milan University and Rem Koolhaas' OMA Studio. The store was part of Milan's transformation and modernisation from its founding as Bocconi in 1865 through its acquisition by Borletti in 1917 when it acquired its current name, and through the years following WWII to its acquisition in 2011 by Central Retail Corp. of Thailand. It was always close to fashion both in its advertising and its offer. Giorgio Armani famously worked at the store before launching his collection, and Canella launched the Missoni brand from the store. La Rinascente is an excellent case of the social and cultural history over the last century embodied in a department store.

Saks Fifth Avenue opened The Advance on the fifth level of its Manhattan flagship. It's a 7,324-square-foot setting with a neutral palette and metallic touches, mixing art and avant-garde designer fashion with whimsical or capricious display. The space includes collection from Proenza Schouler, Vetements, Comme des Garçons and Rick Owens among others. Throughout, designer collections are subtly separated by tall metallic custom-made partitions, and there are long neon light strips along the ceiling brightening the space. Several of The Advance designer labels are at the Saks flagship for the first time, though some could have been found at other Saks locations. The open space is merchandised by designer, each with their own little area and with no one rigidly presented in a hard shop format. There's a fluid feeling, similar to the adjacent 30,000-square-foot Collective for contemporary labels, though the Collective is merchandised by trends and with plenty of mixing and matching of different labels to create unique outfits. Next up for the Saks flagship in its ongoing renovation will be the fall unveiling of the third floor for European designers.

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A luxury mall has opened in a high-end complex in historic Havana. The old shopping arcade, called Manzana de Gomez, has been transformed by the business wing of the Cuban military into a home for L'Occitane, Mont Blanc, Bulgari and others brands. Gaviota, the military's tourism company is in the middle of a hotel building spree which includes the Manzana de Gomez Kempinski, the first five-star hotel in the country, and which reinforces the shopping mall offer.