Can bricks-and-mortar stores survive — even thrive — in a world that seems to be embracing all things online and digital? A combination of new-school marketing and sales tactics with old-school relationship-building techniques seems to be the key.

Ecommerce fashion retailers know the pain of online returns: Customers receive their products only to discover the pants are too long or the sleeves are too short, and back the items come, usually on the retailer’s dime. Air Tailor offers a hands-on solution to all those returns.

Good planning — and taking advantage of today’s modern data resources, analytics and science rather than relying on guesswork or emotion — is one of the keys to being a successful retailer, according to an Oracle Retail panel, held earlier this year.

NRF is proud to provide our members with the online Retail Buying Guide to search for trusted vendors, products and services in the retail industry. Our guide is a user-friendly forum designed to bring suppliers and purchasers together. You can search by keyword, location, company name or category. Available whenever you need it, the Retail Buying Guide makes it easy to locate products and professional services geared to the retail industry. Click here to visit the online Retail Buying Guide! To advertise, please contact Sarah Allen for more information.

In an idea that couldn’t come soon enough, U.K.-based fast fashion retailer ASOS is using artificial reality to showcase how its designs look on people of different sizes. The technology allows the company to envision how its outfits will appear without the need to photograph each item multiple times.

Not sure where to go for lunch? Market Force Information has new insights into America’s favorite quick-service restaurant chains in five areas: burgers, sandwiches, chicken, Mexican and pizza. The survey of 11,500 consumers also revealed dining habits and in-restaurant technology use.

The digital edition of STORES includes must-read pieces, including the articles featured here. Read the current issue and browse the archives for issues you may have missed.

Brittany Underwood’s non-profit Akola Project helps hundreds of women through the creation, distribution and sale of hand-made jewelry. Underwood described how Akola creates economic opportunity and transforms communities from Uganda to Texas on NRF’s Retail Gets Real podcast.

With a belief that “beauty is yours to define and ours to celebrate,” Sephora provides customers a host of personalized tools. Chief Engineering Officer Raghu Sagi spoke at the recent NRFtech conference about how Sephora puts personalization at the front of every client decision.

BrandsMart U.S.A. Executive Vice President Lary Sinewitz, a small Florida-based retailer who sells both in-store and online, told Congress that the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of online sales tax collection will end a price disadvantage suffered by local stores without creating an undue burden for internet sellers.

Amazon and Yext announced an exclusive integration that will provide consumers access to the most up-to-date facts about businesses including locations, hours and service offerings via Alexa. With this new relationship, consumers using Alexa for voice search can receive the most up-to-date facts about businesses — locations, contact information, hours of operation and more — straight from the source: the business itself.

lululemon athletica inc., the healthy lifestyle inspired athletic apparel company, has appointed Calvin McDonald to serve as chief executive officer, effective August 20, 2018. For the past five years, McDonald served as president and CEO of Americas for Sephora, an acknowledged growth engine within the LVMH family of global luxury brands.

MetaPack, the global leader in ecommerce delivery technology, has reached an agreement with Stamps.com Inc., the leading provider of postage online and shipping software solutions, to sell the business in a deal worth approximately $230 million.

ShopKeep, the tablet-to-cloud payments and point-of-sale platform chosen by over 25,000 independent retailers and restaurants, has partnered with trusted credit card processing company, Gravity Payments, to offer ShopKeep’s award-winning POS software with Gravity’s transparent payment processing service.

Amazon and Whole Foods Market launched delivery of natural and organic products from Whole Foods Market through Prime Now in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Palm Beach, parts of Long Island and select areas in New York City, beginning with lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Visa Inc. and WEX Inc., a leading provider of corporate payment solutions, announced a new relationship, uniting two of the world’s biggest commercial B2B payment solutions. As part of this arrangement, WEX and their corporate payment customers have the ability to use a Visa virtual credit card to enable global business-to-business payments, thereby accessing Visa’s network security, global scale and value-added services.

Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation and Insomnia Cookies LLC, a leading cookie delivery company in the United States, announced an agreement through which Krispy Kreme will acquire a majority stake in Insomnia Cookies. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Gather, the leading event management software platform for restaurants and venues, announced the launch of its partnership with Yelp Inc., as part of its new program, the Gather Booking Network. Over $30 billion is spent annually on events and parties in the U.S. and, until today, there has not been a single destination to search for and book events ranging from birthday parties to corporate dinners. Gather’s partnership with Yelp addresses this need by connecting restaurants and event venues with the over 15 million people looking to plan events each year.

Fans looking to experience the first-of-its-kind digital subscription service that is DC Universe are one step closer today. Slated for release in fall 2018, fans in the United States can now pre-order DC Universe at dcuniverse.com for the yearly membership fee of $74.99. Monthly memberships will be available at launch for $7.99 a month.

Synchrony, a premier consumer financial services company, and Belk Inc., a private department store company, announced the new Belk Rewards Mastercard to make shopping simpler and safer, while enabling customers to earn rewards faster.