Marketing

Saks Fifth Avenue's New York flagship is targeting upscale shoe lovers with a historic partnership.

Stage Stores Inc. lowered its profit forecast for the year and said it plans to close at least 90 underperforming stores as the retailer invests more on digital.

The retailer said it expects the closures to enhance its capital efficiency, deliver higher productivity and allow it to invest more money in the online sales product mix and technology in general.

Walgreens locations in two western states will be getting new retail clinics through a new partnership with Providence Health and Services.

Toys“R”Us has collected a sizable amount of money for a cause near and dear to the hearts of toy-loving kids and parents worldwide -- mostly thanks to an innovative social media campaign.

The retailer says it raised $2.2 million during its fifth annual nationwide fundraising and awareness campaign benefiting Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding a cure for pediatric cancer.

The CEO of Whole Foods says that despite the company's recent bad publicity and sales growth struggles, the retailer plans to stay the course of "conscious capitalism."

Los Angeles – Fast-casual pizza chain PizzaRev is cutting into the Mexican market. PizzaRev has signed a franchise agreement with Grupo Galería to bring PizzaRev to Mexico.

The agreement calls for 20 PizzaRev restaurants to be developed throughout Mexico City and the states of Mexico, Nuevo León and Coahuila. The group is the largest Carl’s Jr. franchisee in Mexico and opened the first international store for PizzaRev parent company Buffalo Wild Wings outside of Canada.

Mooresville, N.C. – Lowe’s Companies Inc. missed Wall Street expectations for profit but beat the Street with revenue in a mixed second quarter of fiscal 2015. Net earnings totaled $1.13 billion, up 8% from $1.04 billion the same quarter a year earlier.

Lowe’s achieved its lower-than-expected profit increase by limiting growth of costs and expenses while beating expectations with net sales of $17.35 billion, up 4% from $16.6 billion. Same-store sales increased 4.3%.

Pittsburgh – American Eagle Outfitters Inc. flew high in the second quarter of fiscal 2015, surpassing Wall Street expectations for profit and revenue. AEO reported net income of $33.26 million, an almost six-fold increase from $5.81 million in the prior year period.

The growth pace of cost of sales and expenses was slower than that of sales, helping AEO report such a dramatic rise in profit. Operating income also significantly improved. Total net revenue increased 12% to $797 million from $711 million, aided by an 11% jump in same-store sales.

Veteran finance executive and former top Walmart executive Wan Ling Martello has joined the board of directors of Alibaba as the Chinese e-commerce giant eyes growth in the U.S.

On the heels of an impressive financial report from rival True Value, Ace Hardware is reporting even better sales in its second quarter.

For the quarter ended July 4, Ace Hardware Corp. had record revenue of $1.4 billion in the second quarter, an increase of 6.5% from last year. Ace’s retail same-store-sales reported by approximately 3,000 Ace retailers who share daily retail sales data increased 6.5% and Ace Retail Holdings LLC rose 4.7% due to an increase in customer count and average transaction size.