Walmart

Walmart is looking for innovative technology ideas – and casting a wide net to find them.

The discount retailer is launching a “Technology Open Call” aimed at retail technology start-ups. Walmart will consider technology spanning all of retail, including capabilities around the store shopping experience, associate experience, logistics, big data, security and/or social media.

Amazon.com Inc. swung from loss to profit and significantly boosted net sales during a first quarter that topped analysts expectations.

The world’s largest online retailer reported better-than-expected net income of $513 million, compared to a net loss of $57 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.

Plans are being finalized for a new 100,000-sq.-ft. retail re-development in Enid, Oklahoma, across from the city’s Oakwood Mall, according to developer GBT Realty Corp.

Ace Hardware Corp. is best known for selling home improvement merchandise, but also operates a growing grocery channel.

Using technology from ProLogic Retail Services, a provider of loyalty marketing solutions specializing in independent grocers, the retail cooperative is enabling its Ace Rewards loyalty program in co-located grocery stores. Ace operates grocery in both “store-within-a-store” configurations and adjacent storefronts with grocery partners.

Amazon.com continues to expand its fulfillment center network along with its fleet of college pickup locations.

The e-tail giant will open two new fulfillment centers in New Jersey, in Florence and Carteret. The new centers will create more than 2,000 new full-time jobs in the Garden State, where Amazon already employs more than 5,500 full-time workers.

The word “big” is often associated with Walmart, and that adjective also applies to the discount retailer’s IT spending.

According to data from IDC, Walmart Stores Inc. spent more on IT than any other company globally in 2015, to the tune of more than $10.5 billion. No other retailer, not fellow large tech-focused organization Amazon.com, cracked the top 10 list.

Amazon.com has found another way to demonstrate its commanding lead in e-commerce – monthly unique visitors.

According to the comScore March 2016 rankings of the top 50 multi-platform (desktop and mobile) properties by unique U.S. work and home visits, Amazon sites received 180.97 million unique visitors. This ranked first among all predominantly retail web properties and fifth overall.

Wal-Mart Stores on Thursday announced changes to its board of director of directors that it said were designed to make to make it more nimble and able to respond quicker to today’s fast-changing market.

As part of the changes, four current board members — Aida Alvarez, Roger Corbett, Mike Duke and Jim Walton — will retire and not stand for re-election. In addition, the retailer is shrinking its board by three members to 12, a move that brings it more in line with the size of most U.S. corporation boards.