Click on the link below or scroll down for this month’s top headlines and tekservePOS analysis and tips.

• Urban Outfitters Reports Record-Breaking 4Q
• Dollar Tree Shines in Q4
• Buckle’s Same-Store Sales up 14.7% in January
• Wal-Mart Beats Wall Street Expectations
• Virgin Pleased With Digital Marketing

Microsoft to Open Retail Stores

Redmond, Wash. -- After watching its rival Apple Corp. build one ofthe retail industry’s most admired chains, Microsoft Corp. announced itwill open retail stores under its own banner.

To spearhead the effort, the computer giant has hired David Porter,head of worldwide product distribution for DreamWorks Animation SKG, ascorporate VP, retail stores. Prior to joining Dreamworks, Porter spent25 years at Wal-Mart Stores, where, in his last role, he served as VPand general merchandise manager, Entertainment.

At Microsoft, Porter will report to COO Kevin Turner, anotherWal-Mart veteran. Turner served as chief executive of Wal-Mart's Sam'sClub division before joining Microsoft in 2005.

“There are tremendous opportunities ahead for Microsoft to create aworld-class shopping experience for our customers,” Porter said.

In a release, Microsoft said Porter will lead its efforts to create“a better PC and Microsoft retail purchase experience for consumersworldwide through the development and opening of the company’s ownretail stores.”

The company said that Porter's first order of business will bedefining the time frame, locations and specifics for plannedMicrosoft-branded retail stores.

"The purpose of opening these stores is to create deeper engagementwith consumers and continue to learn firsthand about what they want andhow they buy," according to the release.

Microsoft has taken tentative steps into retail in recent months. Aspart of its Windows marketing campaign, the company launched"Windows-branded sales environments and store-within-a-store concepts"at Circuit City and Best Buy. Also, the company has tested variousretail concepts in a 20,000-sq.-ft. warehouse in Redmond, Wash.,reportedly complete with shelves displaying Xbox games and big computermonitors with touch-sensitive screens. -- ChainStoreAge.com, Feb. 13, 2009

Urban Outfitters Reports Record-Breaking 4Q

Philadelphia -- Urban Outfitters said Thursday that itsdirect-to-consumer unit helped fuel record sales of $508 million in thefourth quarter.

A year earlier, the company reported fourth-quarter sales of $465.4 million.

Direct-to-consumer sales, including Web and catalog operations,accounted for $87.8 million of the sales for the quarter ended Jan. 31,up 20% from $72.9 million a year earlier.

Same-store sales rose by 3% with flagship Urban Outfitters chain posting a 3% gain, while Anthropologie declined by 6%.

Financial results will be posted March 5.

For the fiscal year, Urban Outfitters surged to a record $1.8billion, up from $1.5 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales rose by8%.

The company, which opened 49 stores in 2008, plans to open 52 stores in its current fiscal year. -- ChainStoreAge.com, Feb. 6, 2009

Dollar Tree Shines in Q4

Chesapeake, Va. -- Dollar Tree, Inc. reported total sales of $1.39billion for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2008, a 6.8% increase comparedto $1.30 billion in last year’s fiscal fourth quarter. Same-store salesfor the quarter increased 2.2%.

“Dollar Tree continues to be right for the times,” said Bob Sasser,president and CEO. “The expanded assortment of high-value basicconsumable merchandise makes our stores more relevant and continues todrive sales. Comparable-store sales grew despite challenges throughoutthe quarter, including the calendar shift in November, and a successionof winter storms across the country from mid-December through January.”

For the full year, 2008 sales were a record $4.64 billion, a 9.5%increase compared to the $4.24 billion reported last year.Comparable-store sales increased 4.1% for the full year 2008. -- ChainStoreAge.com, Feb. 5, 2009

Buckle’s Same-Store Sales up 14.7% in January

New York City -- The Buckle Inc. saw its same-store sales jump 14.7%in January as the teen apparel and accessories retailer continued tooutperform most of its competitors. Net sales for the four-weeks endedJan. 31 surged 23.1% to $48 million, from $39 million in the prior-yearperiod. -- ChainStoreAge.com, Feb. 5, 2009

Wal-Mart Beats Wall Street Expectations

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Thursday thatsame-store sales rose 2.1% in January as consumers continued to huntfor bargains and purchased necessities such as groceries.

Same-store, rose 2.1% at the company's U.S. namesake stores and 2.4%at its Sam's Club warehouses during the four weeks ended Jan. 30.Including fuel, same-store sales rose 1.5%.

The results edged past Wal-Mart's own forecast for sales that wouldbe flat to up 2%, as well as analyst expectations for a 1.1% rise. Theretailer said total sales edged up nearly 2% to $27.74 billion from$27.26 billion last year.

The chain said sales were driven by higher customer traffic. AtWal-Mart Stores, groceries and health products sold better than otherproducts. At Sam's Club, food was the biggest seller, and baby care andpet items were also strong. --ChainStoreAge.com, Feb. 5, 2009

As seen on tekBLOG: A Shift Toward the Positive   For some reason there seemed to be a slight shift in the news these past weeks. The negative was sort of pushed aside to make room for some innovative ideas, messages of hope and overall change. We have talked a lot about being creative and thinking outside of the box recently. So one of our favorite recent articles was on Dell's Twitter initiatives. Dell has produced over $1 million in sales through Twitter sales alerts. For those of you who are not twittering -- it might be time to check it out. Another note worth mentioning came from the Shop.org blog on a presentation by OfficeMax's Bob Thacker. In his speech, Thacker said that though we may need to sacrifice, we shouldn’t suffer … “In history, hope, beauty and inspiration were continuing to live in the most abject of times,” he said, reminding the audience that companies like Walt Disney, Revlon, American Airlines, and 20th Century Fox were all created during the Great Depression. For the full tekBLOG entry click here.

Virgin Pleased With Digital Marketing

By Deena M. Amato-McCoy

After realizing that digital-signage technology helped drive 35%more traffic to under-visited areas within the store, Virgin Megastoreis embarking on new projects designed to drive additional revenue.

Virgin recently completed a three-year rollout of digital-marketing solutions from Long Beach, Calif.-based Epson.

The technology was used to draw customers in and invite them tobecome part of the interactive Virgin Megastore brand experience. Thesolutions, including interactive floor projection, projection ontogiant film strips, wall projection, digital banners and large-screenprojection, were installed in the retailer's West Coast flagshiplocation in Los Angeles, its New York's Times Square store and itsDowntown Disney unit in Orlando, Fla.

Besides drawing in-store traffic to various departments, thesesolutions also helped to increase revenues in select areas byapproximately 50%.

“Over the past three years, the technology has paid for itself manytimes over, and you can't put a price tag on the 'wow' factor,” saidKen Donham, senior manager, visual merchandising, Virgin EntertainmentGroup.

Virgin will continue to use the solutions to “keep our store-levelexperience interesting,” he said. “We will be changing up content toensure every store experience is fresh and unique.” -- TechTalk Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009

We have been saying for a few months now, that in order to survivethis economic climate, retailers have to get creative and think outsidethe box. That is what Virgin is doing here with digital-signagetechnology. Digital signage is proving to be a great way for retailersto enhance the customer shopping experience while seeing quick ROI. The Strategy Institute of Toronto reports in a white paper found on DigitalSignageToday.com that“in the retail sector digital signage receives 10 times the eye contactof static signage, boosts sales of new products advertised on in-storedigital signage by 30% to 300%, increases revenue by more than 30percent for profiled products and reduces customers’ perceived waittimes by 15% or more. -- Bob Brittan, Symon (Click here to download the full white paper). Additional stories of interest from ChainStoreAge.com: Toys 'R' Us Buys Three Web Sites Retail Sales Rebound in January Report: Job Losses Continue to Mount NRF: Stimulus Bill Not Enough to Boost Consumer Spending

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