Retail

King of Prussia, Pa. – Online retailers are prioritizing immediate investments in customer-facing tactics such as price, marketing and customer service over strategic infrastructure for the 2014 holiday season. According to the 2014 Holiday Retail Audit, a U.S. survey of more than 1,000 ecommerce and marketing professionals from retailers with revenues of $5 million to $250 million conducted by EBay Enterprise, retailers identified a renewed focus in marketing efforts.

San Jose, Calif. – PayPal has released a version of its PayPal Here mobile payment card acceptance app and reader that is compliant with most major Android tablets. The PayPal Here service itself had previously been available for Android smartphones, but not tablets.

The release primarily allows users of tablet-sized Android devices to now use PayPal Here to accept card payments. There are no major new features.

New York – Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on Friday closed its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange with its shares up 38% from its I.P.O., closing at $93.89.

The stock opened for trade on Friday at $92.70 shortly, a 36% jump above its initial public offering price of $68 a share. More than 100 million shares changed hands in composite trading in the first 10 minutes of trading.

New York -- Brown Shoe Company’s Sam Edelman brand has opened a 3,500-sq.-ft. store in Beverly Hills, California.

The space has a sexy, stylish and whimsical vibe that’s meant to reflect the essence of the brand. The design, by Dagnell Folger of Architecture + Information, embraces the juxtaposition between raw and refined, mixing materials such as reclaimed wood and raw concrete with rose colored brass and black leather.

Atlanta -- Home Depot Inc. confirmed that some 56 million payment cards were likely compromised in its five-month data breach, making it the largest known breach of a retail company’s computer network to date. By comparison, the widely publicized breach at Target last December affected 40 million credit and debit cards.

Niagara Falls, N.Y. -- Macerich announced that its outlet property Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls USA will open the doors of its planned expansion on Oct. 23. The new expansion delivers nearly 175,000 sq. ft. and opens with 35 new tenants, and more to come in 2015.

Stockholm -- The U.S. payments market is getting a new player: Klarna, a Swedish e-commerce company focused on simplifying buying, plans to expand to the U.S. market in early 2015. The nine-year old company has an impressive track record in Europe that includes more than 25 million users and 45,000 retailers including Asos, Spotify and Zara.