Macy's Inc. is bolstering its Backstage off-price unit, testing Backstage pop-up shops in about 45 of its stores, Chief Financial Officer Karen M. Hoguet recently said. The pop-ups, which will be located alongside the department store retailer's Last Act clearance sections, are being added as Macy's continues with its plans to close 100 full-line stores by early next year. Macy's is also adding new merchandise categories to 13 of the Backstage shops, including toys, home decor and pet accessories — "the kinds of things that we don't sell in a typical Macy's that we think the Backstage buyers are better equipped to buy, and we'll see how it sells in the stores," Hoguet said.

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Myer department store of Australia announced results for the year to end July 2016: sales were up 2.9% to A$3290 million although profits were down and EBIT went from A$111m to A$99m. According to management, this is explained by a shift towards a concession business reflecting customer demand but with lower gross margins. Thus the proportion of concessions was up 22% while exclusive brands fell by 7%. International own-bought brands still accounted for over 60% of sales. A new store was recently opened north of Sydney bringing the total to over 60 stores.

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Igloo is an app-based service that delivers clothes by bicycle so that shoppers can try them on at home at night. The service fills an important niche for clients who are too busy to visit brick-and-mortar stores, but don't want to purchase items without trying them on. A selection of items from the stockroom of Galeries Lafayette's Paris Montparnasse store will be available through the Igloo app starting in December. If the pilot goes well, Galeries Lafayette could integrate the try-at-home service as an option on its Web site. Igloo is one of 10 retail and e-commerce start-ups selected by Galeries Lafayette for the first edition of its accelerator program created in partnership with the Silicon Valley-based Plug and Play center.

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Kohl's is launching a new initiative, targeted at the stylish urban millennial, called k/lab. It's a new collection that aims to be more fast-fashion than the brand's typical offerings. The goal with k/lab is to get new customers in the store who may not have considered shopping at Kohl's before, but are interested in the new collection.

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John Lewis has appointed its first woman managing director. Paula Nickolds, 43, started at John Lewis in 1994 and joined the board in 2013 as buying and brand director. She replaces Andy Street who has left to pursue a political career. Andy Street has been managing director since 2007 after five years as director of personnel. He was also a long-time "partner" since he joined John Lewis in 1985.

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Selfridges has announced a drop in full-year profit of 1.9% to £152 million. This result was despite a 5% jump in gross sales to £1.4 billion, a record for the company. UK shoppers still account for 70% of sales. Selfridges receives 2 million people a week online and in its stores in London, Birmingham and Manchester.

Retailers losing business to Amazon have a new tool they can use to learn more about the way customers shop. Think tank Fung Global Retail & Techology and business intelligence provider Prosper Insights & Analytics have developed a new service that aims to help retailers and investors better understand the threat Amazon poses to their businesses and shopper behavior.

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The world famous bespoke tailoring district of Savile Row and the Harley Street medical quarter are among five historic London addresses given special protection with new rules aimed at preserving the distinct personality of each neighbourhood. They will prohibit new stores if they aim to replace bespoke tailoring services, don't sell limited-edition or unique goods, or aren't complementary to the area. New planning rules introduced by Westminster council will make it far harder for developers and landlords to dilute their distinctive character by allowing "clone" chain stores to force out smaller independent businesses.

House of Fraser chief executive Nigel Oddy has resigned less than two years after taking up the post, leaving the retailer hunting for a new boss at the start of the vital Christmas trading period. Oddy will leave at some point in the new year once the company's board has found his replacement, the company confirmed. Oddy joined House of Fraser in 2007, after rising through the ranks at Marks and Spencer before being made chief operating officer at House of Fraser. In 2015 Oddy was made chief executive when John King stepped down following House of Fraser's 2014 acquisition by Chinese conglomerate Sanpower Group. House of Fraser has since posted its fifth consecutive year of annual losses.

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International luxury sales are on track to dip a bit this year, from €251 billion to €249 billion, as spending by China's consumers cools after several years of strong growth, according to the latest Bain Luxury Study. High-end tourist spending rose in the UK after the post-Brexit pound devaluation, but it was down in other parts of Europe, the report found

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Alibaba smashed its Singles' Day shopping record on 11 November by clocking growth of more than 32 percent, the Chinese e-commerce giant said. Retailers on Alibaba's platforms had recorded $17.8 billion worth of gross merchandise volume (GMV). In 2015, the 24-hour e-commerce sales event racked up $14.3 billion GMV in total. "Back in 2013, $5.14 billion was our one-day GMV. Now we can achieve it in one hour," Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang said, adding that in the first hour of Singles' Day, orders were coming in 175,000 per second.

Rent the Runway is coming to Neiman Marcus — bringing a lower-priced fashion option and possibly some new foot traffic to the tony retailer. The seven-year-old luxury apparel rental service is opening a shop in the fifth floor of San Francisco's downtown Neiman Marcus. That gives more than almost 3,000 square feet, which previously held home and children's items, to rentals, returns and exchanges through Rent the Runway. The Neiman Marcus shop will host a rotating selection from Rent the Runway's "dream closet," made up of dresses, jumpsuits, jewelry and more from more than 400 designers, including Diane von Furstenberg, Derek Lam, Jason Wu and Marni. To keep things fresh, the assortment will change daily and be coupled with for-purchase products from Neiman Marcus, such as shoes, handbags, undergarments and cosmetics

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Marks & Spencer will shut 30 UK stores and close down clothing departments in 45 more over the next five years after profits plunged by 88 per cent.

Japanese department store giant Isetan Mitsukoshi is set to open an online store on Alibaba's Tmall Global as it seeks out new customers in China. The new online store will provide a range of Japanese products from clothing and cosmetics to food and daily necessities. From early next year, it will expand its Japanese brand line-up and designer collaborations. Isetan Mitsukoshi aims to leverage the Tmall partnership to accumulate marketing know-how in China and facilitate better communications between its China and Japan stores. Its existing stores in China will also support the Tmall store by providing after-sales services such as repair and processing.

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26-year-old Richard Quinn, graduated from London's Central Saint Martins, has been named the winner of the 2017 H&M Design Award. The judges were most impressed with his fabrics, which he prints himself using ethical processes in his studio in east London, where he plans to open a creative space to become an inspiring centre for other young designers in the capital. Quinn managed to impress the jury with his unique vision of the future of fashion, which is driven by sustainability and design, and was granted €50,000, a year's mentorship, and the chance to develop pieces from his winning collection to be sold in the high-street store. Considering the company's slow shift to ethical design practices, this might be the perfect collection for it to further test the waters in sustainable, forward-thinking fashion.

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An exclusive collaboration between Harvey Nichols and the Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF) is bringing a curated selection of Scandinavian brands and products to the iconic London store in Knightsbridge. The specially selected edit of menswear, art, gastronomy, design and lifestyle objects, offers a glimpse into the lifestyle of the Scandinavian man. The concept, titled North Wind, will be in place for a total of seven weeks, showcasing three different themes in three distinct phases. The North Wind installation will be housed in Harvey Nichols' concept space, Project 109.

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Whole Foods Market has opened an upscale restaOctober urant and bar called the 2ND at its store in El Segundo, Calif., with a seasonal menu that includes vegetarian takes on crab cakes and nachos. The 2ND also offers 36 beers on tap and 12 wines by the glass.

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A yearlong pop-up shop devoted to Hermès silks and jewelry will open in Nordstrom's downtown Seattle flagship. The temporary "NordstromWelcome Hermès" boutique at the downtown Seattle flagship will be open from Oct. 18, 2016 through the end of 2017. Conceived as an accessory-only destination, the shop-in-shop will focus on men's silk, women's silk and fashion jewelry. Some of the design components of the shop include colors inspired by Hermès' silks, cutout walls with colorful edges, mirrored surfaces, magnetic boards on which the enamel bracelets will be displayed, and a suspension installation of hundreds of silk strands.

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One year before the scheduled opening of its new headquarters in Paris, Lafayette Anticipation – the art foundation backed by French retailer Groupe Galeries Lafayette – is hosting a temporary exhibition in a former hardware store in the Marais district. Set to run until Oct . 23 and titled "Joining Forces With the Unknown," it features commissioned works by 14 artists and designers and caps the foundation's three-year pre-opening program. The exhibits are spread out over several floors at the former Weber Métaux store on Rue Debelleyme, in a neighborhood filled with art galleries. The foundation's permanent building nearby, renovated by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas's agency OMA, is scheduled to open in fall of 2017.

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Macy's announced in Shanghai, China, that it will debut its own Chinese e-commerce site next yearafter building a presence in the country via Chinese web giant Alibaba's Tmall Global. Macy's began selling through a Tmall Global storefront last year, offering about 1,500 products from brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Fossil. Macy's also has amassed more than 300,000 followers through Tmall Global's social media channels and also has reached out to young Chinese consumers through special events, such as a live online broadcast about New York Fashion Week, which led to about 150 million related posts to Chinese social network Weibo, Macy's said.

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Japan's second largest retailer Seven & i Holdings Co Ltd has entered an alliance with smaller firm H2O.

Facebook is getting more deeply involved in e-commerce with the launch of Marketplace, its new user-to-user exchange for buying and selling goods with others in your community. The company says Marketplace — which launches this week in the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand — is an evolution of an existing behavior on the social network. Up to 450 million people already use Facebook to buy and sell used goods every month, mainly through its groups feature, according to project manager Bowen Pan. With Marketplace, Facebook is now giving users a more formal process to conduct these exchanges.

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La Rinascente is gearing up to launch "#enjoythefrontrow," an event to be held at its flagship location on Milan's Corso Vittorio Emanuele II from Oct. 11 to 15.

Discount department store J.C. Penney is trying out a new, more compact format for the Sephora beauty boutiques within its department stores in the hopes of bringing the highly successful concept to its smaller stores too.