Tag: stores

shopping

H&M to close hundreds of stores in 2021 as COVID-19 hits sales

Fast-fashion retailer H&M plans to close 250 stores next year as the coronavirus pandemic pushes its customers online.

The Swedish chain on Thursday said it’s accelerating plans to slim down its brick-and-mortar portfolio amid the COVID-19 crisis, which continued to weigh on its sales through September.

“More and more customers started shopping online during the pandemic, and they are making it clear that they value a convenient and inspiring experience in which stores and online interact and strengthen each other,” H&M CEO Helena Helmersson said in a statement.

H&M — the world’s second-largest fashion retailer to Inditex, which owns Zara — expects to close a total of 350 stores in 2021 and open roughly 100, leaving it with about 250 fewer stores than it currently has. The planned reduction accounts for about 5 percent of the company’s more than 5,000 stores.

The pandemic forced H&M to temporarily shutter about 80

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shopping

Walmart is redesigning its stores to create a ‘seamless omni-shopping experience’

Walmart would like to see more people use its app, and the company said today, in a statement on its corporate website, that it’s begun a redesign of its stores to facilitate that goal.

According to the statement, by the EVP and chief customer officer at Walmart, for several years now the retailer has been on a “transformational journey.” It’s been “reimagining ways to create seamless omni-shopping experiences,” as a means to save customers time, as well as inspire them, whether shopping in-store, online or via mobile, it said.

The new look and feel is focused on a “digitally enabled shopping experience,” the statement said, appealing to shoppers “through a sleek design aesthetic, a layout that spotlights products and an end-to-end digital navigation that guides customers throughout their journeys.”

What do the additional design elements and digital experiences include?

In order to create an instant omni-shopping experience in the customer’s

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shopping

Walmart brings online shopping experience in stores with app-driven redesign

Major retailer spreading deals throughout the holiday season, and adding more online bargains.

Walmart stores are being “optimized” with redesigned aisles, self-checkout kiosks and app-aided directories.

The retail giant is redesigning stores to mirror its online shopping experience in real life – and to get more customers to download its app.

Walmart’s app-driven redesign will launch in 200 Supercenters by the end of the year and close to 1,000 stores by the end of 2021. (Walmart). 

Walmart’s redesign will launch in 200 Supercenters by the end of the year, and close to 1,000 by the end of 2021. The retailer’s chief customer officer and an executive vice president, Janey Whiteside, says the redesign is intended to streamline how a large group of people navigate stores. It was inspired also by airports, she said.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
WMT WALMART INC. 139.73 +2.60 +1.90%

WALMART EXPANDS BEYOND MEAT PARTNERSHIP 

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shopping

Walmart is overhauling 200 of its stores into an airport-inspired theme expected to perfectly blend the online and in-store shopping experience



a woman holding a cell phone: A Walmart shopper checks the company's mobile app next to a store directory. Courtesy of Walmart

© Provided by Business Insider
A Walmart shopper checks the company’s mobile app next to a store directory. Courtesy of Walmart
  • Walmart is redesigning 200 supercenters across the country, with an eye toward combining shoppers’ digital and in-store experiences.
  • The newly-refurbished stores will feature bolder signage to reflect and encourage app usage, more self-checkout kiosks, and separate sections for toys, electronics, and baby products.
  • “We’ve tried to think through how we help customers discover and get inspiration online and reflect that in terms of a completely new store look and feel,” Walmart Chief Customer Officer Janey Whiteside told Business Insider.
  • The remodeling project will expand to 1,000 stores by the end of 2021.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Walmart will remodel 200 of its Supercenters by the end of 2020 to encourage a more “digitally-enabled shopping experience” featuring bolder signage, contactless checkout, and airport-inspired crowd management techniques, according

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shopping

Walmart is overhauling 200 stores based on airport-inspired theme

  • Walmart is redesigning 200 supercenters across the country, with an eye toward combining shoppers’ digital and in-store experiences.
  • The newly-refurbished stores will feature bolder signage to reflect and encourage app usage, more self-checkout kiosks, and separate sections for toys, electronics, and baby products.
  • “We’ve tried to think through how we help customers discover and get inspiration online and reflect that in terms of a completely new store look and feel,” Walmart Chief Customer Officer Janey Whiteside told Business Insider.
  • The remodeling project will expand to 1,000 stores by the end of 2021.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Walmart will remodel 200 of its Supercenters by the end of 2020 to encourage a more “digitally-enabled shopping experience” featuring bolder signage, contactless checkout, and airport-inspired crowd management techniques, according to the company’s Chief Customer Officer Janey Whiteside.

The retail giant’s remodeling project will expand to 1,000 stores by the end

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shopping

Best Buy closed down stores in the pandemic. People kept shopping

When the coronavirus started spreading in the United States in March, Best Buy chief executive Corie Barry moved quickly.



a sign in front of a house: Best Buy has been one of the few retail winners in the pandemic.

© Johnny Louis/Getty Images
Best Buy has been one of the few retail winners in the pandemic.

Barry made the decision to voluntarily close the company’s 1,000 stores across the country, putting it at a major disadvantage as consumers flocked to other chains that sold electronics like Walmart and Costco, or ordered online from Amazon.

Barry could have kept stores open in some areas where Best Buy was considered an essential business because it sold products that allowed people to work and go to school from home. But customers and employees were scared, she said in an interview, and the company had “very little real empirical data about how to keep people safe.”



a woman smiling for the camera: Best Buy CEO Corie Barry decided to close stores in the early stages of the pandemic.

© Courtesy Best Buy
Best Buy CEO Corie Barry decided to close stores in the early stages of

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shopping

Amazon Brings Palm Reader Payments to Retail Stores

Move over Bill Gates, it’s time for Jeff Bezos to get a little more time in the spotlight of conspiracy theorists. On Tuesday, Amazon announced the rollout of its new Amazon One devices that use a customer’s palm for identification and payment at physical retail stores. The devices are already available for use in Seattle locations for Amazon Go stores, and the company wants to expand it to any retailer willing to partner with the enemy.

According to an announcement by Dilip Kumar, vice president of Amazon’s physical retail business, the Amazon One device creates even less payment friction in the company’s cashier-less retail stores. Instead of being identified by an account on their mobile phones, customers can simply walk into the store, scan their palm, shop for products, and the purchases will be automatically charged to a credit card.

Is this a precursor to the fabled mark of the

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