Direct To Consumer (DTC)

New York - Borderfree, provider of international cross-border e-commerce solutions, has expanded its platform to reach more than 220 countries and territories. This expansion of scope includes an additional 120 countries and 15 currencies.

Key emerging luxury markets Borderfree will now sell to include Nigeria and Kazakhstan. Both markets offer opportunities for e-commerce expansion due to increasing smartphone saturation and discretionary spending.

The additional countries will be available to Borderfree customers starting this June.

New York - Fashion retailer Rent the Runway has hired industry veteran Chris Halkyard as the company's first chief logistics officer, effective Aug. 1. In his role, Halkyard will oversee Rent the Runway's logistics platform, including the company's proprietary reverse-logistics operations and transportation network.

Phoenix — Vestar announced the signing of Forever 21’s newest concept store, F21 red, at Tempe Marketplace, in Tempe, Ariz. The 1,000-sq.-ft. store, the first F21 in Arizona, will open this fall.

The F21 red brand will offer a larger merchandise selection and lower prices of the trendy fashion forward styles for young men and women than the typical Forever 21 store.

Seattle — Amazon.com is reportedly expanding the assortment of items eligible for free two-day shipping for members of its Prime paid subscription. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is now listing items shipped directly from third-party seller warehouses for free Prime two-day shipping, without any publicity.

Amazon is considering creating a network of drivers similar to Uber in order to speed up deliveries and reduce shipping costs, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Instead of using UPS or FedEx, Amazon.com is mulling a plan to hire ordinary people to make deliveries that are on the way to their destinations, the Journal says. The e-commerce giant is also looking at partnering with retailers to store the merchandise before delivery.

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As more brands evolve to a direct-to-consumer model, Unilever is expanding its direct selling to China by launching a flagship store on JD.com.

The Unilever flagship store on JD Worldwide, which is JD.com's cross-border e-commerce platform, will feature products from a range of Unilever’s most popular global brands such as Ponds, Dove and Vaseline. Notably, the flagship store will make available three product lines from Lux's shampoo range, which are currently the best-selling shampoo products in the Japanese market.

New York — Apple has opened its sixth store in Manhattan, on the Upper East Side in a Beaux Arts building that was originally the home of the U.S. Mortgage & Trust bank in the 1920s. The site, on Madison Avenue, most recently housed a luxury retailer.

Dallas — Neiman Marcus Group posted a profit of $19.8 million for the third quarter, compared with a year-earlier loss of $8 million. (The quarter included a $16 million charge for amortization of intangible assets, compared with a $36 million charge a year earlier.)

Revenue for the period ended May 2 grew to $1.22 billion from $1.16 billion in the year-ago period, boosted by Neiman’s acqusition of luxury online retailer MyTheresa in fall 2014.

<The Neiman Marcus Group says currency exchange rates put pressure on traffic in the first quarter as the company reported a smaller than expected boost in same store sales. 

The retailer said same store sales increased 2.2% for the third quarter ended May 2 as the strong dollar had some impact on the retailer’s business.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Edible Arrangements International has chosen Buxton to help the company meet its full growth potential with regards to its core business and the national expansion of its Edible to Go line of fresh fruit smoothies and treats.