eCommerce

The largest retailer of party supplies in the United States, Party City, has filed paperwork for an initial public offering of its shares.

The company, which sells party supplies, decorations and costumes, said it expects the offering of 21.9 million shares to be priced at between $15 and $17 per share.

Party City Holdco Inc. is expected to be valued at nearly $2 billion in its initial public offering, the first by a U.S. retailer this year.

By Ken Nisch

The evolution of shopping based on the consumer mindset that is reflective of the past and targeted for the future can be described as a “Digital Ecosystem.” Much like the proverbial iceberg, this ecosystem has most of the system existing before the consumer “waterline.” Above this waterline exist the elements for which we are most accepting; such as mobile and tablet interface, kiosks across applications ranging from the ATM, to the calling of an Uber cab street side.

Omnichannel solutions provider RichRelevance has hired a former WalmartLabs executive to serve as its chief product officer.

Mahesh Tyagarajan will be responsible for product strategy and management, engineering and cloud operation and infrastructure. The company also named microstrategy and business objects veteran John Dickson as vice president of client services, where he will drive the expansion of RichRelevance’s position as the dominant provider of large-scale omnichannel personalization deployments around the world.

Chicago -- West Marine will celebrate the grand opening of its Chicago flagship on Thursday, April 23, and continuing through Sunday, April 26.

At 20,000 sq. ft., the Halsted Street location will be the largest West Marine store in the Midwest. The new store will include such features as a state-of-the-art marine electronics display with over 100 units that shoppers can touch and test, and a dedicated "Paddle World" featuring a huge selection of kayaks and stand-up paddleboards, plus a broad range of paddling accessories.

Seattle - Amazon.com Inc. has expanded Prime Now service to Atlanta. The expedited delivery service, offered exclusively as a benefit to Prime members, provides one-hour delivery on tens of thousands of items through a mobile app.

Century 21, the coveted off-price store beloved by fashionistas in the Northeast, has announced that it will be heading south for its next location.

Century 21 will be opening an approximately 85,000-square-foot store – the first anywhere in the nation outside of the Northeast – at Sawgrass Mills in South Florida in the fall of 2016.

Tucson, Ariz. -- A 17-acre parcel of land at the northwest corner of Houghton and Old Vail Roads in southeastern Tucson, Arizona, is slated to become a new retail and restaurant hub. The site work has begun at Las Plazas at Old Vail, in the form of under-ground utilities, grading, retention/detention, common drive aisles, landscaping, curbs and parking lot lighting.

Atlas Technology Group, one of the fastest growing retail technology solution providers in the consumer goods industry, has named a new president.

Pat Lockridge, who has been SVP of sales at Atlas since 2013, has been promoted to president. Nicholas Dozier will remain CEO of ATLAS Technology Group, which is based in Bentonville, Ark.