Corporate Governance

Seattle -- Online retailer Zulily announced today that Brian Swartz has been appointed senior VP and CFO, effective June 1, 2015.

Swartz brings more than 20 years of operational and financial experience to Zulily. For the last six years, he served as senior VP and CFO of Apollo Education Group, Inc., a private-sector education company. Swartz joined Apollo from EaglePicher Incorporated, a technology and industrial products and services company, where he served as VP and corporate controller.

The fashions and style of the American West are apparently resonating with shoppers of the Sundance Catalog, as the company is gearing up for big retail expansion.

Toronto -- Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th has announced its first three store locations in Canada as it prepares to enter the Canadian marketplace next year.

The retailer will open stores in Tanger Outlets, Kanata (a suburb of Ottawa); Outlet Collection at Niagara, Niagara-on-the-Lake; and Vaughan Mills, Vaughan (just north of Toronto) in spring 2016. The three stores are the first of up to 25 locations that Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th plans to open nationwide.

Former Apple and JCPenney executive Ron Johnson’s career has been marked by spectacular success and failure, which is why his new retail venture called Enjoy is of interest, even if it borrows heavily from a service Best Buy launched more than a decade ago.

Billed as a “a whole new way to buy and enjoy technology,” Johnson secured $30 million in funding last fall and launched the service on Wednesday in the San Francisco area and debuts May 13 in New York.

New York -- Global Brands Group has named former Ann Taylor and May Company executive Adrienne Lazarus as CEO of The Frye Company, one of the holding company’s premier brands.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation is  NRF is hosting a night of shopping in the nation’s capital to honor retail’s entrepreneurial spirit.

The National Retail Federation’s “Retail’s Night Out” will be a celebration of Small Business Week with local merchants and national brands set up in one-night-only pop-up shops in Washington, D.C., on May 6. The event will also feature live music, local food trucks and a red carpet.

HSN’s push to make it easier for smartphone shoppers to buy its products online was successful in the first quarter, with the multichannel retailer reporting a big increase in mobile sales.

Digital sales at HSN grew 18%, with mobile sales increasing 31%. HSN earned $0.63 per share in the first quarter, exceeding analyst expectations of $0.58 per share. Similarly, revenue of $841.9 million was better than the $826.08 million analysts expected. 

Flash sale site Zulily is making “significant progress” toward growth, accord to its CEO, and moving ahead with the launch of a redesigned website.

The company reported that revenue in the first quarter ended in March rose nearly 30%, year over year, to $306.6 million, missing consensus for $314 million, yielding EPS of a penny per share.