Finance & Capital Management

It’s official. Amazon is raising the membership fee for Prime and Student Prime customers.

The company sent out emails today to Prime and Student Prime consumers letting them know of the new fees. Prime customers will be paying an annual rate of $99 whenever their membership renews — that’s up from $79 per year.

Student Prime consumers will pay $49 a year, up from $39. Students with questions about renewal rates should click here for details.

New York -- Amazon is increasing the annual membership of its Amazon Prime service from $79 a year to $99. The online giant, which made the announcement on its homepage, had suggested last year that increased shipping costs would force it to raise the annual price of its premium membership.

The price hike takes effective in seven says. Until then, customers can still sign up for the $79 rate. The increased fee will be charged when users renew their Prime memberships.

Jacksonville, Fla. – Stein Mart Inc. reported drops in net income and sales during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, which it mainly attributed to the year-ago period having one extra week. The retailer remains optimistic as it plans to open 10 new stores and six relocated stores in fiscal 2014.

Fourth quarter net income dropped 42% to $7.4 million from $13.1 million compared to the same period in the prior year, while total sale declined 2% to $360.8 million from $368.6 million. In one bright note, same-store sales grew 3.1%.

Finance executives who participated in professional services firm BDO’s annual CFO survey expect 8.2% growth in online sales this year and not surprisingly plan to increase investments in mobile capabilities.

Mobile and online sales will continue to drive growth for retailers in 2014, the firm said. However, now that e-commerce has firmly taken root in the retail industry, growth is beginning to stabilize. As a result, about 64% of CFOs said online sales will grow in the coming year, a figure below the 74% who expressed that sentiment the prior year.

East Harford, Conn. — Horizon Group Properties has announced an agreement to develop a new outlet center in East Hartford, Conn. The 350,000-sq.-ft. Outlet Shoppes at Rentschler Field is scheduled to open in the summer of 2016. Rentschler Field is a historic airstrip located near downtown Hartford.

The Hartford metropolitan area has 2.2 million residents and an average annual household income above the national average. No outlet shopping centers currently serve the market.

In 1984, at the impressionable age of 17, Doug McMillon’s journey with Walmart began in a way that hardly foretold he would one day become CEO. On the way to a Walmart warehouse for his first day of unloading trucks, McMillon rear-ended his supervisor’s car with his father’s Honda Civic, he recalled in the February issue of Walmart World.

Although McMillon’s early exposure to Walmart came inside a sweltering distribution center, he said the camaraderie, enthusiasm and passion he witnessed let him know something special was going on.

San Antonio -- Stephen Smith, former co-CEO of the Toronto-based restaurant chain owner and operator Cara Operations Limited, has been elected to the CST Brands' board of directors. Smith's most recent experience was with Cara as co-CEO and, prior to that, CFO of Cara. Previously, Smith served for many years as an executive of Canadian grocer, Loblaw Companies Limited.

Despite continued adverse weather conditions throughout February and into March, Kirkland's president and CEO Robert Alderson said that early first-quarter sales and margin trends have been positive and encouraging.