eCommerce

San Francisco -- Ben & Jerry’s has opened its largest flagship to date, a 3,000-sq.-ft., two-story location in São Paulo, Brazil.     Designed by Tesser, a San Francisco strategic branding and design firm, the property showcases the company's social mission along with its iconic ice cream treats.   

By Craig Johnson, Customer Growth Partners   With a third straight year of dismal retail spending, American consumers will generate only a lackluster 3.4% year-over-year increase in holiday sales, well below the 5% pace in 2010 and 2011, according to Customer Growth Partners’ 14th Annual Holiday Forecast.   

Chicago -- Englewood Construction’s restaurant and retail groups have recently broken ground on four projects, completed three projects and started work on one expansion project across the country.   In the Chicago area, Englewood’s restaurant group recently broke ground on an 11,265-square-foot, ground-up Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant in Oaklawn, Ill., and an expansion for the popular Purple Pig restaurant on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. 

Seattle –- Amazon.com will start offering daily Black Friday deals on Saturday, Nov. 1. Amazon will also start offering two Deals of the Day every day through Monday, Dec. 22.  

Bentonville, Ark. –- Wal-Mart is reportedly testing a price-matching program it may use for the upcoming holiday season. According to the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart is currently piloting price-matching with local competitors in brick-and-mortar stores but may expand the program nationally and include online competitors like Amazon.com.  

Montreal, Canada – Retail real estate firm Simon, private Canadian developer SmartCentres and Calloway REIT are celebrating the opening of Premium Outlets Montreal Thursday, Oct. 30. Featuring designer and lifestyle brands, the new centre has more than 80 outlet stores offering savings of 25 to 65% every day.    Many of these new outlet stores are unique to the Montreal metro area, including Michael Kors, Max Mara, The Hudson Bay Outlet, Desigual, Vans and many more.

New York –- Online retailer Gilt has added the Alipay EPass payment option to its checkout, making it easier for consumers in China to shop using its e-commerce platform. The partnership provides a more seamless experience for Chinese Gilt members, allowing them to pay through their existing Alipay accounts directly on the Gilt website.