eCommerce

eBay has come up with a clever solution to help Americans solve a common dilemma: what to do about unwanted holiday gifts.

The online marketplace retailer will operate pop-up selling stations in three select Westfield shopping centers across the country during “Boxing Weekend” from Dec. 26 (Boxing Day) to Dec. 27. The stations will be located at Westfield San Francisco Centre, San Francisco; Westfield Garden State Plaza, Paramus, New Jersey; and Westfield Hawthorn Center, Vernon Hills, Illinois.

Photo: (left to right) Thu Xuan, Thuy Nga, Duong Quoc Nam, Shari Wagner, Kevin Wagner, Minh Hua, and Robin Lim (PRNewsFoto/Ashley Furniture Industries, In)

The demise of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. elevated the retail vacancy rate along central New Jersey’s major shopping corridors to 8.8% from 7.5% in 2014.

That’s according to the latest study by R.J. Brunelli & Co. Despite the uptick, the region’s 2015 vacancy factor remained a healthy distance from the 10.2% recorded in 2013 and the eight-year high of 10.5% set in 2011, but was well above the period’s low point of 4.8% posted in 2008.

One of New York City’s most iconic luxury apparel stores is getting bigger.

Bergdorf Goodman will relocate its executive offices and other non-sales related functions to 4 West 58th Street, adjacent to its iconic Fifth Avenue location. The move will create an additional 25,000 sq. ft. of retail space in the retailer’s flagship, including the entire 8th and 9th floors.

This holiday season, both laptop/desktop computers and mobile phones will play a critical role in the online path to purchase.

According to a new study of more than 1,000 U.S, consumers from online discount platform Ebates, more than half of Americans (53%) are choosing to use their laptops to shop this holiday season, followed by their home computer (39%) and their mobile phone (24%).

Social commerce is evolving, which means the omnichannel world is changing, too. Even the mere definition of omnichannel is in flux as the lines between commerce and communication blur and new platforms proliferate.

It’s been a slow evolution, with many attempts to perfect social commerce resulting in failure. Will consumers ever have a world where commerce is one with their social experience? Right now the experience is a lot like being at a party, talking with friends, only to be interrupted by an uninvited guest trying to sell you fabric softener.

2015 has been a good year for e-commerce. Alibaba shattered records on Singles Day with $14.3 billion in sales. India witnessed a boom in e-commerce investment from companies looking to win the millions of new smartphone users. Even the Girl Scouts joined the digital mix, rolling out version 2.0 of their Digital Cookie program to boost their online cookie sales.

2015 has been a good year for e-commerce. Alibaba shattered records on Singles Day with $14.3 billion in sales. India witnessed a boom in e-commerce investment from companies looking to win the millions of new smartphone users. Even the Girl Scouts joined the digital mix, rolling out version 2.0 of their Digital Cookie program to boost their online cookie sales. We expect even bigger things from 2016.

Pier 1 Imports says it is still confident in its omnichannel strategy despite a mostly flat third quarter in which the company struggled with the same soft store traffic impacting many other retailers.

For the third quarter ended Nov. 28, the specialty retailer said same store sales decreased 0.7%. Total sales decreased 2.5% (a 1.4% decrease on a constant currency basis) to $472.5 million, compared to $484.5 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2015. Net income $10.92 million, or 13 cents a share, vs. a profit of $17.86 million, or 20 cents a share, a year ago.

With the financial picture improving modestly at Toys “R” Us, CEO David Brandon said the company is ready to build on third quarter successes during the final days of the holiday season.