Strategy

Conshohocken, Pa. – Home furnishings giant Ikea is increasing the minimum wage it pays to U.S. employees in stores and some distribution centers for the second straight year.

According to the Associated Press, Ikea’s average U.S. minimum hourly wage will rise about 10% to $11.87 from $10.76 as of Jan. 1, 2016.

While 2014 was rocky for a great many retailers, with several thousand store closings across most categories of retail, the first half of 2015 has seen some encouraging signs of a modest resurgence in certain retail sectors and from select brands. The higher numbers of store closings are far from over, and it would not be accurate to refer to 2015 as a total turnaround, but it does seem noteworthy that there are significant categories of retail that have aggressively moved to capitalize on opportunities.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid announced on Wednesday that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Envision Pharmaceutical Services from global private investment firm TPG and other shareholders. The transaction is valued at approximately $2 billion, including approximately $1.8 billion in cash and approximately 27.9 million Rite Aid shares.

Retailers are losing billions of dollars to shoplifting, employee/vendor theft and administrative error, according to the National Retail Federation.

Armonk, N.Y. – IBM and Box are launching a global, cloud-based partnership that will integrate their existing products and services and develop new solutions targeted across industries including retail. The strategic alliance brings together Box’s cloud content collaboration platform with IBM Analytics and social solutions, IBM security technologies and the global IBM cloud.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation praised the Senate’s passage on Wednesday of Trade Promotion Authority

New York -- The combination of Royal Ahold and Delhaize Groupe creates a new super-regional chain along the Eastern Seaboard that will serve 50 million customers weekly and generate annual sales of more than $60 billion.

The merger announcement was highly anticipated following months of speculation followed by confirmation of talks between the companies. Now that the merger agreement has been reached, Ahold and Delhaize said they expect the deal to close by mid-2016.

Beijing, China - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is both thinking and acting globally with a major expansion of its cross-border e-commerce initiatives. Alibaba’s new global effort includes the launch of 11 official country pavilions on its Tmall Global platform.