DressBarn

Retailers are spicing up their brick-and-mortar stores to keep you walking through the door. Their game plan? To design environments that are equal parts high-tech and homespun. But will the changes be enough to keep physical stores from being reduced to showrooms for e-commerce sites?

While well-known retail stocks like Wal-Mart and Best Buy get most of investors' attention, another path to investment success is to find and buy misunderstood or overlooked stocks. Ascena Retail Group and rue21 are two such stocks, relative unknowns that are performing quite well in today's difficult economic climate.