eCommerce

Hangzhou, China – Alibaba Holding Group Inc. is tapping a former longtime partner at Goldman Sachs to oversee the online giant’s international growth.

Michael Evans, who is also a member of the Alibaba board, has been named president of Alibaba Group, effective immediately.

Boston -- Online licensed-sports apparel retailer Fanatics has taken website testing and optimization to a whole new level.

Fanatics is using SiteSpect’s Origin Experiments to test more than site aesthetics, such as headlines and font color. The solution empowers Fanatics to execute a broad range of tests on new site features and functionality, such as on-site search and checkout flow.

Irvine, Calif. -- Billabong International has selected a retail suite from JustEnough’s retail suite of solutions to help transform its planning and replenishment processes across all its brands worldwide.

“Now Trending” is a new exclusive online series to chainstoreage.com, featuring trending topics that impact the retail real estate landscape.

In recent years, a very old practice has gotten some new attention: design is once again ascendant in the world of commercial development.

While design never went away, of course, the degree to which great design is being prioritized, cultivated and integrated into the development of memorable spaces and places is noteworthy.

Woonsocket, R.I. -- CVS Health is showing no signs of slowing down.

The company reported that its second-quarter net income rose 2.1% to $1.27 billion. Adjusted earnings came to $1.22 per share, beating Zacks Investment Research analyst consensus of $1.20 per share.
 
Net revenues rose 7.4% to $37.2 billion.
 

Retail is becoming an increasingly hot market for hosted cloud computing providers. Some of those providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Aliyun cloud division of Alibaba, are operated by retailers.

The pace of store closings at Office Depot is accelerating and employee retention costs are rising as the retailer maintains that its merger with Staples will close by year end.

The options for consumers who dread the store checkout lane are exploding now that fast growing Instacart is on a hiring spree and competitor Deliv says it will be expanding into more than 100 cities.

Petco is preparing for a potential initial public offering or sale that could value the pet supplies retailer at between $4 billion and $5 billion.

Reuters is reporting that the retailer has selected Goldman Sachs to help with an IPO of the San Diego-based company that could take place as soon as this year.

Toys"R"Us is headed to a galaxy far, far away with its next promotion.