HSN, Inc.

Birmingham, Ala. -- Books-A-Million appointed James Phelps as VP e-commerce. For nearly 15 years, Phelps has been a leader in e-commerce, serving with retailers including HSN, Kohl’s Department Stores, and Brookstone.

Newgistics, a leading provider of end-to-end e-commerce solutions for top retailers and brands, has added Andrea Weiss and Robert Rosenblatt to its board of directors.

The company said that it plans to leverage the duo’s first-hand knowledge of what retailers need to compete in an increasingly omnichannel environment.

Leading U.S. bookstore chain and online bookseller Books-A-Million has named James Phelps as VP of e-commerce.

“We are pleased to welcome James to Books-A-Million, and look forward to him bringing his expertise to our team as we continue to build our digital business,” said Cy Fenton, Books-A-Million’s CIO and president of Booksamillion.com.

St. Petersburg, Fla. – HSN Inc. (HSNi) missed Wall Street expectations for its net income in the second quarter of fiscal 2014. HSN reported net income of $40.9 million, a 5% drop from $43.3 million a year earlier.

Net sales rose 5% to $855.2 million, from $812.6 million. Mobile and digital sales growth helped drive the overall improvement in net sales. Promotions in the company’s Cornerstore business negatively impacted net income.

Despite reporting a second-quarter sales increase of 5% and a digital sales increase of 9% — with mobile representing 15% of its total sales — HSN missed Wall Street expectations for its net income thanks to a 5% drop from $43.3 million a year earlier to $40.9 million for the quarter.

Overall net sales grew 5% over the prior year to $855.2 million.

Plano, Texas – Mindy Grossman, the chief executive of HSN Inc., reportedly declined an offer to become CEO of J.C. Penney Company in May 2014. According to the Wall Street Journal, Grossman had been in advanced negotiations with Penney to take the reins as CEO but discussions ended for an unspecified reason.

St. Petersburg, Fla. – HSN Inc. (HSNi) is promoting chief marketing officer Bill Brand to president of HSN, effective immediately. Brand will retain his role as chief marketing officer of HSNi and will continue to report directly to HSNi CEO Mindy Grossman.

Brand is also an executive officer of the company. As president, he will assume responsibility of merchandising, programming, planning and HSN2 in addition to his current responsibilities.

Washington, D.C. - Shop.org is adding two new members to its board of directors and welcoming back eight members that currently serve on the board. Each member will serve a two-year term.

New Shop.org Board members:

• Bryon Colby, senior VP of digital commerce, Cornerstone Brands/HSNi; and
• Deepika Pandey, group VP, customer experience, direct and digital marketing, Walgreen Co.

A longtime HSN executive has been promoted to president of HSN. Bill Brand has been at HSNi since 2006 as SVP programming and has been the company’s chief marketing officer — a post he’ll maintain alongside his new position — since 2013.
 

ValueVision Media, a multichannel electronic retailer operating as ShopHQ via TV, Internet and mobile, has named Mark Bozek as CEO. It has also reconstituted its board of directors and appointed Bob Rosenblatt as its non-executive chairman.

Bozek succeeds Keith Stewart, who has resigned as CEO and as a director of the company. Bozek has more than 20 years of senior executive experience in the multichannel commerce, electronic retailing and entertainment industries, including having served as CEO of HSN, SVP of QVC and as a producer at Fox Television.