Vuori Launches Vuori Snow: A New Perspective On Mountain Apparel

Apparel retailer Carve Designs is trying to find a balance this holiday shopping season, selling items at full price, while also offering promotions during a suitable (and limited) window and “protecting” key inventory. The Cyber 5 — or the period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, also called Cyber Week — has become cyber month, said Megan Porteous, chief revenue officer at Carve Designs. She was previously the brand’s vice president of ecommerce and performance marketing. The retailer primarily sells sustainable apparel. It says 99% of its apparel products come from sustainable materials, including all of its swim collection. Additionally, it says all the cotton it uses is organic. Carve Designs first participated in Cyber 5 promotions in 2023. Last year, it launched a gift-finder quiz and introduced a gift-with-purchase incentive. “We’re still figuring out what makes the most sense for us as far as how heavy to participate,” Porteous told Digital Commerce 360. “It’s certainly something we saw tremendous results from last year. The whole fall selling season has completely changed because of it.”

Sam’s Club announced significant progress in its rollout of technology that resolves a key member concern – waiting in line for receipt verification to exit the club. The retailer’s first-of-its-kind application of artificial intelligence and computer vision technology has been successfully deployed in more than 120 clubs since first unveiling it at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. Sam’s Club’s rapid deployment of its exit technology represents the largest-scale implementation of member-facing AI-powered technology in the retail industry. The retailer’s announcement of reaching the milestone of deploying at 20% of its clubs in the first quarter comes as other retailers have struggled to deploy similar technology at scale, with some abandoning efforts, just starting initial pilots or having no plans to enhance customer experiences through checkout and store exit technologies.

If you’re strolling down the Marylebone High Street in London, you’ll stumble across a popular bookstore called Daunt Books. Inside, sunlight pours through stained glass windows, dappling rows of books organized by country, rather than theme, to appeal to armchair travelers who want to explore the world through reading. “It’s how I like to read, personally,” says James Daunt, who opened the bookstore in 1990 when he was in his twenties. “But it muddles the books because you abandon traditional subject categories.” Daunt acknowledges that his approach to bookselling is unusual, and perhaps a little risky. But it’s been a hit. He went on to open five other Daunt Book locations across London, which have thrived over the past 33 years, even as Amazon has grown explosively, putting many bookstores out of business.