Marketing

Barcelona -- eBay on Monday announced a number of strategic moves including a new partnership with major carrier Three.co.uk; integrations with merchants such as Yotel and Entradas.com; and mobile app updates that evolve mobile commerce selling and shopping experiences for consumers.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Two months after Sears Holdings Corp. received a $150 million Illinois tax credit for cementing its plans to keep its home base in the state, it announced Monday that it would close six stores in Illinois.

The retailer had already announced in December – two weeks after the tax credit – that it would close 100 to 120 stores, but no Illinois stores were on the initial list.

Mooresville, N.C. -- Lowe’s Cos. reported Monday that profit for the quarter ended Feb. 3 rose 13% to $322 million, compared with $285 million a year earlier. Results topped Wall Street expectations and demonstrated an upward consumer swing in home-improvement projects.

Quarterly sales increased 11% to $11.6 billion from $10.5 billion, beating analysts’ expectations of $11.35 billion in revenue. Same-store sales rose 3.4%.

Cambridge, Mass. -- For the second consecutive time, Walmart’s overall branded basket registered as less expensive than Target’s, according to Kantar Retail’s semi-annual pricing study.

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway has named Brian Baer president of its Dominick’s Finer Foods division in the Chicago area.

Baer had been acting president of Dominick’s since last July when the previous president, Don Kperta, resigned.

Baer joined Safeway in 2001 as VP finance for the company’s Phoenix division. In 2008, he was appointed CFO at Dominick’s.

Columbus, Ohio -- Express announced today that Michael Keane has been appointed to the position of executive VP human resources.

He most recently served as executive VP human resources & stores for Tween Brands, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ascena Retail Group.

San Francisco -- Jones Lang LaSalle announced that John Stevens joined the firm’s San Francisco office as VP leasing specialist. A 25-year veteran of commercial real estate, Stevens will focus on leasing space in the firm’s 12 million-sq.-ft., third-party retail portfolio on the West Coast.

Dallas -- SRS Real Estate Partners announced two new hires in the South Florida office, as Dominic Delgado and Evan Richardson both joined the team as senior associates.

Delgado will focus on investment services, landlord representation, tenant representation and disposition services.  Prior to joining SRS, he worked in Miami as community association management coordinator for KW Property Management.

Costa Mesa, Calif. -- Transwestern announced the renewal of a multi-year, $4.69 million lease of a 53,164-sq.-ft. office space for Anna’s Linens in Costa Mesa’s Harbor Gateway Business Park.
 
The office will continue to be used by Anna’s Linens as its corporate headquarters.

“We are very pleased to maintain our headquarters here in Orange County, where the company was born,” said Alan Gladstone, chairman and CEO of Anna’s Linens.

New York City -- Bloomingdale’s said Monday it has launched a new customer loyalty program called Loyallist in all U.S. retail locations and online.