Corporate Governance

The Home Depot is the latest major retailer to investigate what looks like a data breach.

The Atlanta-based retailer is looking into the matter and also working with law enforcement and bank investigators.

"Protecting our customers' information is something we take extremely seriously, and we are aggressively gathering facts at this point while working to protect customers,” the retailer said in a statement.

Murad, the skin care brand founded by Howard Murad, plans to open in October the company’s first official stand-alone retail boutique.

The freestanding store, which will serve as Murad’s global flagship retail location, will be located in Los Angeles. The opening of the 1,500-sq.-ft. store front coincides with the celebration of Murad’s 25th anniversary this year.

The strategy at Conn’s to grow sales of its most profitable product lines have proved successful for the specialty retailer, which marked its 12th consecutive quarter of increasing same-store sales. But overall results were unsatisfactory, because provisions for credit losses were higher than expected, resulting in portfolio performance deterioration.

For the second consecutive quarter, Toys “R” Us has delivered positive comparable store net sales results in its U.S. and international segments.

After several years of market weakness, the company’s international business as whole has begun to rebound, driven primarily by net sales increases in Japan and the U.K. Business in China and Southeast Asia remains strong, as the company continues its expansion in that region.

Improved merchandising strategies and marketing execution at Big Lots has president and CEO David Campisi feeling good about prospects for a company that continues to distance itself from its closeout roots.

Online sales at regional department store operator Belk grew 43% during the second quarter, prompting the company to announce a major investment in its e-commerce and fulfillment capabilities.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble still pose an enormous threat, but things may be looking up for Books-A-Million where losses are declining and the company just hired an e-commerce veteran.

Books-A-Million said revenue for its second quarter ended August 2 declined 0.5% to $108.3 million, same store sales increased 0.1% and it lost $3 million, or 21 cents a share. The loss was significantly less worse than a prior year loss of $9.1 million, or 62 cents a share.

New York – Macy’s Inc. has begun offering customers a digital wallet application called My Wallet. Available via mobile Web browser or the Macy’s mobile app, My Wallet automatically gives customers access to any credit cards already stored on their Macys.com account, according to the retailer’s MyWallet Web page. It also lets them add up to 10 new credit cards, including third-party cards, although it does not allow gift cards to be stored.

Fort Worth, Texas -- RadioShack is partnering with Defense Mobile Corp., a Connecticut-based veterans mobile service company to be the exclusive national retailer for Defense Mobile's new nationwide 4G LTE mobile services.

RadioShack will begin offering Defense Mobile's branch branded mobile services exclusively to the 51.6 million members of the U.S. military community, including those actively serving (including members of the Reserve and National Guard), veterans and their family members, planned for September.

Atlanta – Bitcoin digital currency platform provider BitPay has become a Demandware Link Technology Partner. Demandware’s clients will now be able to easily add bitcoin as a form of payment due to BitPay’s development of a pre-built integration between its payment processing services and the Demandware Commerce platform.