Direct To Consumer (DTC)

Salt Lake City – Break out the hairspray and acid-washed jeans, Overstock.com is launching a new omnichannel promotion with none other than Bret Michaels, frontman of legendary hair-metal headbangers Poison. The Overstock.com Mother's Day Spa Getaway with Bret Michaels sweepstakes provides an all-expenses-paid hotel and spa trip to Phoenix, where the winner and a guest will have dinner with Michaels.

Staples Inc. has made a change in a key executive position even as the company awaits regulatory approval for a pending merger with Office Depot.

Staples said it has named Peter J. Scala as executive vice president, merchandising, effective immediately. Scala will report to Demos Parneros, president, North American stores and online, and will be a member of the company’s executive committee.

Physical expansion remains the primary growth driver of many a U.S. retailer, but the likes of Alibaba and rival JD.com are allowing U.S. retailers and brands to tap the Chinese market without the aggravation and financial uncertainty associated with establishing a physical presence.

Brooklyn, N.Y. – Etsy Inc., the online marketplace for handmade arts, crafts and clothing, has gone public with a bang. Shares opened on Thursday at $31 a share, almost twice their initial public offering price. As of April 16, Etsy is trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol “ETSY.”

After the offering, the total number of shares outstanding will be 110.9 million. Based on the opening price, Etsy is valued at over $3.7 billion.

New concepts are the lifeblood of retailing. Here are six new stores — three homegrown formats and three imports — that are currently in the works:

The nature of competition in the retail industry is not what it used to be. Decades of consolidation concentrated sales among a top tier of mega-retailers fueled deal-making among product manufacturers and others who serve the retail industry.

The top 10 U.S. retailers now account for more than $1,200,000,000,000 (zeroes added for effect) and that figure swells to $1.5 trillion if the next 10 largest are include. The big have gotten bigger and will continue to do so in the near term, however there is also a dramatic “re-fragmentation” of the retail industry underway.

New York -- Teens directly command a whopping $75 billion of discretionary spending, but their wallets continue to shift from fashion and other “possession-based” categories to “shareworthy” experiences such as events and dining out. Those are among the findings of a study conducted by investment bank and asset management firm Piper Jaffrey.

Littleton, Mass. - Dover Saddlery Inc. entered into a definitive merger agreement with a company formed by Webster Capital. Webster will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Dover common stock for $8.50 per share in cash and take Dover private.