Jeffrey Charney has left his role as senior VP and CMO at multimedia retailer QVC and joined Aflac Inc. as senior VP and CMO.

Charney “is a proven leader with cutting-edge experience in brand development, creative consumer and product marketing and strategic business development,” said Paul S. Amos II, president and COO at Aflac, in a statement. “As we continue to promote the understanding of Aflac products and services to employers and consumers, I am confident that Jeff will be a significant asset in fortifying our position as the market leader of supplemental insurance in the United States.”

 The company also appointed Ronald S. Sanders as senior VP, deputy director of sales.

Plus-size women’s clothing retailer Lane Bryant has retained Zimmerman Advertising. The agency wouldn’t comment on what the assignment will entail.

By “strengthening its identity as ‘the source’ for both up-to-the-minute and classic fashions that meet the needs of fit, different body types and the demand for quality plus-size fashion, Lane Bryant can expand its leading position in” the plus-size category, said Michael Goldberg, executive VP and CMO at Zimmerman Advertising, in a statement.

The agency will be putting its creative talent and ability to track the results of its efforts to work for Lane Bryant, according to Zimmerman founder Jordan Zimmerman, in a statement.

Zimmerman Advertising is an Omnicom Group company.

In August, Lane Bryant’s parent company Charming Shoppe Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to sell its non-core catalogs to Orchard Brands as part of a strategy to focus on Lane Bryant, Catherines and Fashion Bug and leverage its position in the women’s specialty plus apparel category.

The New York Daily News is reporting that traffic on JCrew.com increase by 64% this week after Michelle Obama revealed on “The Tonight Show” that the outfit she was wearing had been ordered from the Web site.

“You can get some good stuff online,” Obama reportedly told host Jay Leno.

The skirt worn on the show by Obama was soon the most-viewed item on JCrew.com and a New York City outpost of the retailer was pulling the cardigan she sported off the racks and putting them on hold for customers.  

We’ve been hearing that the recent financial turmoil was only going to make what was already going to be a tough fall for retailers even tougher. In one of the first pieces of evidence that this is in fact true, Williams-Sonoma lowered its revenue and earnings guidance today for the third and fourth quarters and full year because weakening sales dropped even further in October.  

 “Over the past six weeks our sales trends have weakened dramatically, reflecting a significantly higher level of consumer concern over the events that have taken place in the global financial markets as well as the increasing likelihood of a prolonged recession,” said Howard Lester, chairman and CEO of Williams-Sonoma, in a statement. The decline in demand affected all of Williams-Sonoma’s channels and brands, with the decline in comparable store sales accelerating from negative 14% in August to negative 20.1% in September to negative 26.6% so far in October.

Reuters and others are reporting that Howard Lester, CEO of Williams-Sonoma Inc., recently sold 14% of his shares in the company to cover what’s known as a margin call. The information was revealed by Williams-Sonoma in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

When a company borrows from a brokerage house to buy stocks on credit using securities and the stock dips below a certain point, brokers who lent investors money through these margin loans can demand that investors sell part of the stock or deposit more money to cover the losses. This is a margin call.

The upscale home furnishings chain is one of several multichannel merchants that have watched its value drop significantly this year amidst a soft US economy and weak housing market.  Shares of Williams-Sonoma have lost 53% of their value since the beginning of the year. Over the past month, the stock has lost 33%. Shares closed at $12.10 on Wednesday.

Lester sold approximately 1 million shares in all on Monday and Tuesday for an average of $12.63 and $13.17, respectively. Following the sale, he owned about 6% of the company’s shares.

It’s not all bad news on the retail front. The Sundance Catalog opened its second retail store on Oct. 4 at the Village at Corte Madera in Marin County, California.

Sundance’s retail stores offers many of the same items found in its catalog as well as an assortment of items unique to the retail environment.

In June 2007, Sundance opened a flagship store in Denver. At the time, DMNews reported that this was part of a planned national roll out of retail locations that was supposed to include 20 stores over the next four years. That store was designed to reflect the brand’s commitment supporting to environmental sensibility, and was constructed with recycled woods.

The second store features a stacked stone storefront fitted with steel and glass barn doors and reclaimed tobacco barn oakwood floors and fixturing.

Sundance doesn’t comment in the press release about any additional store openings.

Macy’s has introduced Shop for a Better World, a collection of one-of-a-kind artisan creations from recovering regions such as Cambodia, Indonesia and Rwanda that will be available online and at select stores this fall.

The shop expands on a collection of baskets that was originally introduced fours years ago as a partnership between Macy’s, Fair Winds Trading and women artisans in Rwanda. The goal was to provide income generating opportunities for these artisans.

Based on the success of that original partnership, Shop for a Better World expands the product offering to including Cambodian silks, Indonesian crafts and other items. The original goals, however, remain and include: Nurture local production, employ rural populations, preserve artisan traditions, provide income and education and create a sustainable business.

The retail industry’s budding efforts to make its stores more environmentally friendly recently received a boost in the form of technical assistance awards from the US Department of Energy to Best Buy, JC Penney, John Deere, Macy’s, SuperValu, Target and Whole Foods Market that are earmarked for the adoption of energy-saving technologies.

The awards are part of the DOE’s Net-Zero Energy Commercial Building Initiative. In total, 21 companies across the retail, financial and commercial real estate industries were awarded $15 million in technical assistance.

 “The Net-Zero Commercial Building Initiative is designed to achieve real, substantive change in commercial buildings,” said John Mizroch, DOE acting assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, in a statement. “We must work together with the private sector to shape our practices and define cost-effective solutions.”

In 2007, commercial buildings consumed about 19% of U.S. energy and accounted for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the DOE.  

Each of the 21 private sector companies will have its design and facility management team work with DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory to design, build, tune and operate at least one new prototype building and to retrofit an existing building project for 50% and 30% energy savings, respectively. 

While there’s a lot of coverage of Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch acquisition, I found myself pondering the impact of another merger this morning. Electronic shop and direct marketer Best Buy agreed to purchase music sharing site Napster today.

The investment not only shows the promise of digital music, but also the power of a good list. Napster’s subscribers are known music lovers and the company has already invested heavily in new music distribution platforms. Reporter Mary Hurn covered the trends surrounding Web 2.0 music marketing for us last month.

Given Best Buy’s history with successful direct marketing tactics, I’m looking forward to watching how the retailer might leverage new names.

The volume of cargo coming into the major US ports can be measure of how retailers are faring because so much merchandise these days is sourced overseas.

In a recent report from the National Retail Federation, cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to decline 6% in 2008 compared with last year as retailers carefully manage their inventories. The NRF and Global Insight release a monthly report called Port Tracker which looks at inbound container volume and other factors affecting cargo movement and congestion.

Cargo volume each month this year has been below the same month last year, and is expected to continue to be below last year’s levels in each remaining month, according to the report. Year-over-year increases previously expected in October and December are no longer anticipated as retailers tighten up their inventories for the holidays.