With different customers and different plans going forward, Sears and Lands' End are parting ways. The companies had maintained a symbiotic relationship with stores-within-stores at 40 locations, down from 174 last year, but will now separate all remaining Lands' End stores from their parent Sears locations. The Chicago Tribune reports: Lands’ End is back at Oakbrook Center mall — this time, outside the shadow of Sears. The Dodgeville, Wis.-based casual clothing retailer had a shop inside the Sears, its former parent company, on the mall’s northwest side before the Sears temporarily shut … [Read more...]

Walmart has deployed an army of robots in its stores to monitor inventory, clean floors and unload trucks. The effort to increase efficiency comes at a time when the company's chief competitor, Amazon, has used robots to revolutionize its fulfillment centers. The race is now on, as mega-retailers are finding the best ways to incorporate robots into their businesses. Sarah Nassauer and Chip Cutter write in The Wall Street Journal: The country’s largest private employer said at least 300 stores this year will add machines that scan shelves for out-of-stock products. Autonomous floor scrubbers … [Read more...]

In an effort to catch up in the retail delivery war, CVS has announced the roll-out of nationwide same-day prescription delivery. CVS announced: CVS Pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), today announced that it is now offering prescription delivery within hours in addition to their 1-2 day prescription delivery service available nationwide. The service, delivered by Shipt, a leading same-day delivery marketplace, is available at 6,000 CVS Pharmacy locations across the country, giving patients a faster and even more convenient way to get their medications. "A year ago CVS … [Read more...]

You can now order pizza in your car and have it delivered anywhere Domino's will deliver with an automotive commerce platform from Xevo. Food Logistics reports on what may be the next step in the fast food wars: Domino's Pizza is working with Xevo Inc. to launch an ordering platform pre-loaded in cars starting in 2019. The new in-vehicle Domino's app is powered by Xevo Market, an automotive commerce platform for connected cars. "At Domino's, we want pizza ordering to be simple and always within reach, no matter where a customer happens to be," says Chris Roeser, director of digital … [Read more...]

As Amazon grows, and it aims to turn sales into profits, things are changing. Sometimes that means customers aren't always getting what they thought they paid for. One Amazon Prime customer ordered a ladder and a different one arrived... broken. A month later, he was still trying to get a refund. Katherine Bindley explains what's happening in The Wall Street Journal: Mr. Arguello says the seller then told him that to get a refund, Mr. Arguello must destroy the ladder, so no one will get hurt using it. Though it wasn’t a Prime purchase, Amazon intervened after the Journal’s inquiry and … [Read more...]

In the race for retail domination, Amazon and Walmart are putting increasing emphasis on the ability of shoppers to get what they want, when and where they want it. In a bid to win the high end digital sales war, Walmart has created a new invite only shopping experience called Jetblack. The service provides wealthy online shoppers with the ability to shop via text message, and to rapidly receive what they have ordered, usually the same day. Sarah Nassauer writes for The Wall Street Journal: Epiphany Davis arrived at work in lower Manhattan on a recent morning, consulted her cellphone and set … [Read more...]

Amazon has stepped into many industries, not just e-commerce and online services, but actually producing its own line of Amazon branded products. There has been fear among branded consumer products companies that Amazon's efforts would severely hurt their business, but a study shows that might not be the case. Bloomberg's Spencer Soper reports: The explosion of Amazon.com Inc.’s private-label products -- batteries, baby wipes, jeans, tortilla chips, sofas -- has prompted concern that the world’s biggest online retailer could use its clout to promote these house brands at the expense of … [Read more...]

In a bid to compete with Amazon, Walmart is telling suppliers they need to accelerate their shipments. Jennifer Smith and Sarah Nassauer report in The Wall Street Journal: The retailer wants suppliers that ship full trucks of products to deliver orders within a specified two-day window 87% of the time, up from an 85% rate it targeted previously. Suppliers that fill part of a truck with their goods must hit a 70% on-time threshold, a significant jump from the previous target of 50%. Walmart also is changing how it penalizes suppliers when they make partial deliveries, an effort to make sure … [Read more...]