eCommerce

Fort Worth, Texas – Analyst firm Wedbush Securities is reportedly advising clients that a bankruptcy is “imminent” at RadioShack. According to Barron’s, Wedbush has lowered its target price for RadioShack to $0, citing concerns including inability to secure lender approval for 1,100 proposed store closings and general weakness in the consumer electronics sector.

Observant shoppers will have noticed something ominous in recent weeks: the arrival of fall and winter products and holiday marketing/promotions in many stores. As unbelievable as it might seem, considering the fact that much of the country is still experiencing 90-degree heat and a glance at the calendar shows that it is barely September as I write this, the holiday hullabaloo is already underway.

New York -- Barnes & Noble Inc. on Tuesday reported a smaller-than-expected loss of $28.4 million in its fiscal first quarter, down from $87 million a share, a year earlier. The chain has been cutting spending in its Nook e-reader division and moving toward a spinoff of the business.

Revenue fell 7% to $1.24 billion, including a 5.3% drop at the company’s retail segment.

New York - Online retailer Beyond the Rack has signed a long-term, 3,944-sq.-ft. lease at 561 Seventh Avenue, which will serve as the firm’s U.S. headquarters, with Handler Real Estate Organization. The tenant, relocating from the Bryant Park area, will occupy the entire third floor at 561 7th Avenue in December, pending build-out of the space.

Eden Prairie, Minn. - ShopHQ, a multichannel electronic retailer, has selected Manhattan’s Warehouse Management System (WMS) to help the company increase throughput and capacity of its distribution and fulfillment operations. The software deployment is part of an expansion of the company’s Bowling Green, Kentucky-based distribution center, which will more than double in size from 260,000 sq. ft. to 600,000 sq. ft. by the end of 2015.

Austin, Texas - Whole Foods Market and one-hour grocery delivery service Instacart are launching a new partnership that enables customers to have Whole Foods Market products delivered in as little as one hour. Customers will soon also have the option to place orders via Instacart and pick up their order at a local Whole Foods Market store.

Ottawa, Canada - The retailers who “won” during the holiday season in 2013 were those that offered meaningful discounts on a sizable number of products on Black Friday instead of discounting a small number of door crashers. According to analysis from 360pi and Retail Systems Research, poor financial performance followed those retailers who discounted during the week leading into Black Friday, and those who kept discounts in place following Cyber Monday generally fared better than those who raised prices.

New York – Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that media reports indicate could be worth as much as $24.3 billion, making it the biggest U.S. initial public offering ever.

According to Bloomberg, Alibaba is seeking a valuation as high as $162.7 million, in the upper end of the proposed price range and higher than that of any other public Internet company in the U.S. except Google and Facebook.