Direct To Consumer (DTC)

Hickory Farms is looking for new ways to grow following the operator of the company acquisition last fall by a private equity firm and the recent appointment of a CEO who spent time at RedBox and Crate & Barrel.

Boston -- Gordon Brothers Group announced that it has entered into an agreement with NapaStyle and its creditors to acquire the company’s assets, including intellectual property, inventory and furniture, fixtures and equipment.

Founded by celebrity chef, Michael Chiarello, NapaStyle offers handcrafted and artisanal home goods, furniture and specialty foods for decorating, entertaining, cooking, wine, garden and home enthusiasts through store, online and catalog channels.

Google is reportedly looking to beef up its professional apps offering by purchasing a well-known provider of hosted online retail services. According to Re/Code, Google is considering purchasing Shopify. The Canadian provider of cloud-based e-commerce tools is a public company valued at $2.25 billion. [Re/Code]

Destination XL Group is seeing strong same store sales growth from its stores branded as DXL as it continues to shift away from the smaller footprint Casual Male concept.

Destination XL Group, which bills itself as the largest omnichannel specialty retailer of big and tall men's apparel, said its total same store sales increased 3.1%, but its 137 DXL stores open for more than 13 months grew comps 8.9%.

Ross Dress for Less opened a new store North El Centro, California on March 5. The opening is part of the retailer’s 2016 expansion program, totaling about 70 new locations during the year.

The 26,000- sq.-ft. store is located at Centro Commons, 11 miles north of the California-Mexico border, at the intersection of Imperial Avenue and Cruickshank Drive. With this location, Ross operates 277 stores in California, its largest state.

RSR has been tracking retailers' e-commerce strategies for more than five years. During that time we’ve seen interest in a major platform refresh, the introduction of mobile and social as e-commerce considerations, as well as convergence – where retailers increasingly view mobile and other non-commerce online activities in the context of their overall "digital" strategy, with their e-commerce platform as the centerpiece.

Leading online jeweler Blue Nile is set to open its first physical location outside of New York City in an ongoing effort to reimagine the jewelry buying experience.