Retailers Turn To Online Shopping To Rescue Back-To-School Season

After a horrible first half of the year, retailers are going high-tech to rescue the back-to-school season. Traditional department and discount store chains are trying to win over shoppers — and compete with online titan Amazon — by converting their brands into omnichannel retailers that make it easy for shoppers to buy online, in-store or from a mobile device — and move seamlessly among all three options. “Growth … looks different today,” said Brett Biggs, chief financial officer of Walmart, at an analyst presentation in June. “It’s still about comp sales and … building stores. But now it’s about mobile e-commerce … fulfillment capabilities … and developing new services.” The back-to-school season generates an estimated 18 percent of annual sales for apparel retailers, second only to the holidays’ 19 percent, according to Cowen & Co. Read more at New York Post.