eCommerce

New York – Larry Kirshbaum, a publishing industry executive who joined Amazon.com’s New York-based publishing unit in 2011, is reportedly leaving the company to become a literary agent. According to the Associated Press, Kirshbaum, who formerly was in charge of the Time Warner Book Group will officially leave his position in January 2014.

Pittsburgh – Dick’s Sporting Goods opens five new stores across the U.S. on Nov. 8. The stores will be located in Dover, Del., Palm Desert, Calif., West Des Moines, Iowa, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Findlay, Ohio.

Dick’s will operate a total of 554 stores in the U.S. upon opening the five new stores. The Sioux Falls store will be the chain’s first store in South Dakota. This total will include three in Delaware, 32 in California, five in Iowa, and 38 in Ohio.

San Diego — Petco has opened its first store in Mexico and announced plans for continued expansion in Mexico and Latin America through a joint venture with Grupo Gigante of Mexico.

The companies plan to open as many as 50 Petco stores in Mexico and Latin America by 2020.

Columbus, Ohio – Lane Bryant opens three new locations and a relocated store on Oct. 25. The stores are all located at shopping centers.
    
The new stores are located at Miracle Mile Shopping Center in Monroeville, Pa., Rushmore Shopping Center in Rapid City, S.D., and Commons at Magnolia in Florence, S.C. Lane Bryant also opens a relocated store outside of The Promenade at Millcreek Mall in Erie, Penn. on Oct. 25.

Shoppers at J.C. Penney stores this holiday season will discover a more rewarding experience following the retailer’s decision to team up with leading retail app Shopkick.

J.C. Penney shoppers will be able to Shopkick’s currency known as "kicks” along with special offers from the retailer when visiting any of its nearly 1,100 stores

Woodland Hills, Calif. — GrowLife has announced the opening of its seventh store in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Oct. 25.

GrowLife Hydroponics operates in the legal cannabis industry with online and brick-and-mortar stores.

New York -- Amazon.com narrowed its loss in the third quarter and posted a better-than-expected 25% increase in sales. The online giant reported a net loss of $41 million, down from $274 million in the year-ago period, in line with expectations.

Amazon reported revenue of $17.1 billion, beating expectations by about 2% on strong sales growth, particularly in the U.S. market.

A compressed shopping season coupled with the continued growth of e-commerce has UPS forecasting that peak season daily package volumes will grow by 8%.