RETAIL DIVE: Target taps top Pinterest “pinners” for design partnerships and lots of attention!

Dive Brief:

• Target has announced partnerships with popular pinners on Pinterest. The designers, who also run design blogs, are developing exclusive party-planning lines that will be available on Target’s site and in stores, the company revealed Monday.
• A Pinterest spokesperson hailed the move, saying that Target’s tapping of “everyday pinners” shows that the site inspires people to find and share things they love and do something with that.
• The effort debuts March 16 with a party decorating line by Joy Cho, whose blog “Oh Joy!” boasts more than 13.6 million Pinterest followers, compared to Target’s less than 150,000.

Dive Insight:

Retailers have heard plenty about using sites like Pinterest to connect with customers, but Target has taken things up a notch by tapping popular “pinners” to design products for them. The move is reminiscent of the retailer’s early collaboration with top fashion designers, something that some observers at the time doubted would succeed. It not only did succeed, but started a trend among other downscale retailers like J.C. Penney, and this too seems destined for a win. After all, Joy Cho, the design blogger who will be first in Target’s Pinterest experiment, has about 90 times the Pinterest followers of Target. Pin that!

Recommended Reading:

Mashable: Target Taps Top Pinterest Influencers for Design Collaboration

RETAIL DIVE NEWS: Sears to Close Chicago Loop Flagship Outlet Store

Dive Brief:

• Hoffman Estates (Chicago)-based Sears will shutter its Loop district location in April after liquidation and lay-offs beginning Jan. 26. The closing comes amid a campaign of selling assets and closing stores in the U.S. and Canada.
  
• Chicago is the retailer’s flagship city, where its name once graced the famed skyscraper now known as Willis Tower.
  
• Sears Holdings, the retailer’s parent company, has seen revenue decline since 2005. That year, billionaire hedge fund manager Edward Lampert, now Sears chairman and CEO, merged Kmart and Sears in an $11-billion deal.

Dive Insight:

It’s almost like renaming the famous Sears Tower to Willis Tower in 2009 was bad luck for the once seemingly larger-than-life retailer. Although many in Chicago still refer to the skyscraper as the Sears Tower, the truth is that the retailer is a shadow of its former self. It continues to close stores, lay off employees and shed assets in hopes of garnering cash as it struggles to compete with traditional department stores, big-box stores, and the likes of Walmart and Target. Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert is also putting money and muscle into the technology it will take to boost its e-commerce segment, which, if successful, could in a way bring the retailer back to its roots, when its catalog was the go-to place to order everything from work boots to houses.
Recommended Reading:
Chicago Tribune: Sears to close flagship Loop location in April

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Topics: Technology, Retail Trends, Operations, Markets & Policy

By Daphne Howland Jan. 22, 2014

Original Article: http://www.retaildive.com/news/sears-to-close-chicago-loop-store/218089