Marketing

The Chinese e-commerce giant had a very merry holiday as its December quarter sales surged 54% year-over-year (YoY).   Alibaba’s sales hit $7.7 billion for the three months ended on Dec. 31, 2016, exceeding analysts’ expectation of $7.3 billion. The increase is also prompting the retailer to “adjust up our 2017 fiscal year revenue guidance from 48% to 53% year-over-year growth,” said Maggie Wu, CFO of Alibaba Group.   

Forest City announced it has closed on the sale of Shops at Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx to Urban Edge Properties for $32 million. The seller expects to net $9.2 million in the transaction.  

Following its success in renovating another center in the Florida town of Jupiter, Elion Partners had embarked on a renovation of Jupiter Reserve, which will be re-christened as Pennock Square.   Plans for the 43,172-sq.-ft. center include a cosmetic makeover to a more contemporary look, new signage, and parking and landscaping upgrades.    Elion’s re-do of the nearby Fresh Market Village inspired the effort.  

Kevin Scott is joining Microsoft in the newly created role of chief technology officer (CTO).   Scott most recently served senior VP of infrastructure at LinkedIn, which Microsoft purchased in June for $26 billion.   

Luxury Brand Holdings, parent company of Ross-Simons and Sidney Thomas, has appointed James M. Speltz as president.    Speltz will join the company’s board and oversee all business activities. Most recently, he was COO for Teikametrics, a software and service provider to Amazon.com third-party merchants.  

Schostak Brothers has added six multi-tenant properties to its “Shadow Walmart” portfolio of retail space adjoining supercenters, bringing it to a total of 67. The new additions are located in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.   “In the last decade, we have pursued an aggressive growth strategy in order to assemble one of the largest Walmart Supercenter shadow-anchored shopping center portfolios in the United States,” said Schostak COO Warren Strietzel.  

The Kroger Co. is hiring to fill an estimated 10,000 permanent positions in its supermarket divisions.   The company also announced that its total active workforce grew by more than 12,000 associates in 2016. Over the last eight years, Kroger has created more than 86,000 permanent, new jobs. (The total does not include jobs created as a result of capital investment, such as temporary construction jobs, nor do they include increases due to the company's mergers. Kroger and its subsidiaries today employ more than 443,000 associates.

Lowe's Companies’ chief marketing head Marci Grebstein has left the company after 14 months in the position.   The home improvement giant wasted no time in naming a successor, tapping Jocelyn Wong as chief marketing officer, effective immediately. Wong joined Lowe's in September 2015, and most recently served as senior VP and general merchandising manager for the seasonal business. Prior to joining Lowe's, she served as senior VP and chief marketing officer at Family Dollar.