Retail

Rakuten LinkShare saw strong third quarter results in its global performance marketing network. Along with double-digit growth, the affiliate network reported a significant increase in the percentage of sales transacted on mobile devices.

The company reported an increase in same store sales in the U.S. of 22% year-over-year, and an increase in same store sales in the U.K. of 34% year-over-year.

Salt Lake City -- Consumers value salesperson expertise above all else, but they often find such expertise lacking, according to eXperticity’s first-ever Retail Buying Experience survey. The study found a striking expertise gap among sales associates in five retail areas: outdoor, sporting goods, hunting or fishing, health and nutrition, and prestige beauty.

 When asked to rate which services consumers most desire and value from retail sales associates, the top four were:

1. Product knowledge (73%);

San Diego — Petco has opened its first store in Mexico and announced plans for continued expansion in Mexico and Latin America through a joint venture with Grupo Gigante of Mexico.

The companies plan to open as many as 50 Petco stores in Mexico and Latin America by 2020.

Real time retail is the best way to describe an intriguing new shopper engagement platform from Bazaarvoice that allows brands to respond to questions and reviews about their products directly on retail sites within the Bazaarvoice network.

For many retailers, Halloween has become one of their favorite times of year. Spending on Halloween-related costumes, decorations, candy, etc. has grown to the point it represents the second-highest consumer spending holiday, only trailing Christmas with NRF estimates of this year’s spending total reaching $6.9 billion. But while a good scare is all part of the annual Halloween fun, retailers need to ensure their omni-channel customers do not get scared away by frighteningly poor digital commerce features and functions.

New York – Larry Kirshbaum, a publishing industry executive who joined Amazon.com’s New York-based publishing unit in 2011, is reportedly leaving the company to become a literary agent. According to the Associated Press, Kirshbaum, who formerly was in charge of the Time Warner Book Group will officially leave his position in January 2014.

Pittsburgh – Dick’s Sporting Goods opens five new stores across the U.S. on Nov. 8. The stores will be located in Dover, Del., Palm Desert, Calif., West Des Moines, Iowa, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Findlay, Ohio.

Dick’s will operate a total of 554 stores in the U.S. upon opening the five new stores. The Sioux Falls store will be the chain’s first store in South Dakota. This total will include three in Delaware, 32 in California, five in Iowa, and 38 in Ohio.

Macy’s is poised to have its best digital Christmas ever thanks to a major expansion of ship from store fulfillment capabilities that enable the company to provide an omnichannel experience.

This holiday season, Macy’s will be able to fulfill orders placed online from 500 of its more than 800 stores, a major expansion from last year when ship from store was available at 250 locations.

“The way we view omnichannel is about having stores serve as another fulfillment location,” said Pam Sweeney, Macy’s SVP of logistics systems.