eCommerce

New York -- Lululemon Athletica signed leases to open two new stores in the Soho section of downtown Manhattan, including its first-ever freestanding store for men, The Real Deal reported.

The men’s store will be located at 127 Prince Street. The women’s store will take space at 125 Prince Street.

Lululemon is on track to open some 45 locations this year.

Dublin, Calif. --  dd’s Discounts, a division of Ross Stores, Inc. will open a new store in Dallas on Sept. 27.  The store is located at Skillman Abrams Crossing in North Dallas. 

Including this new location, dd’s DISCOUNTS will operate approximately 150 locations in 13 states. The company is on schedule to complete its expansion plan to open approximately 20 locations in 2014.

Wayne, N.J. -- Toys “R” Us and specialty retailer Claire’s have entered into a global partnership to open nearly 100 Claire’s in-store shops in Toys “R” Us locations across Europe, along with 12 U.S. locations, by year-end. The shops will feature an assortment of jewelry, headbands, hair and fashion accessories, jewelry holders, legwear, seasonal items and more. The rollout follows a successful pilot program in Europe.  

By David Ashen, dash design

Lately you can't turn on the television or pick up the newspaper without seeing a story about Millennials, also known as Generation Y. People are endlessly fascinated by their traits, values, work habits and shopping patterns. Why all of this focus on the group of people born between the early 1980's and 2000's?

Matthews, N.C. -- The heated battle for Family Dollar Stores rages on, with Family Dollar on Wednesday rejecting a $9.1 billion takeover bid from rival Dollar General and reaffirming its support of its deal with Dollar Tree. Family Dollar also urged shareholders not to tender their shares to the competing chain.

New York -- Amazon and the U.K.-based mobile payments company, Bango, have teamed up with Germany’s Telefónica Deutschland to deliver carrier billing services on Telefónica’s network in Germany.  The service will allow people who buy paid apps and make in-app purchases through Amazon’s appstore to charge that directly to their phone bills.

The service will be deployed gradually through next year on certain Amazon mobile applications running on Telefónica devices in Germany.

Fort Worth, Texas -- Pier I on Wednesday reported income and sales that missed Wall Street forecasts. The retailer also detailed its online growth and omnichannel investments.
 
Pier I posted net income of $9.2 million for the second quarter ended August 30, 2014, down $17.8 million from the year ago period, amid continued investments in omnichannel growth and increased fulfillment costs.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. -- Kohl’s Department Stores anticipates hiring more than 67,000 associates nationwide this holiday season to support in-store and online holiday business.

Kohl’s plans on hiring an average of 50 associates per store at its 1,163 stores in 49 states. In addition, the company anticipates hiring approximately 9,300 seasonal positions at distribution centers across the country and approximately 670 seasonal credit operations positions.