eCommerce

E-commerce solutions provider Digital River Inc. has named a Groupon executive as its next CFO.

Digital River has announced that Hoke Horne has joined the company as chief financial officer. In this role, Horne, who has more than 20 years of financial experience, will be responsible for the company’s accounting, finance, tax, corporate development and enterprise operations activities.

The woman who put the “T” in Tarjay is stepping down from her role as chief merchandising officer and adding some uncertainty about the retailer’s direction under the leadership of chairman and CEO Brian Cornell.

Toys”R”Us is curating a special lineup of toys -- and a new shop -- in anticipation of San Diego Comic-Con that is designed to appeal to the toy collector community.

Amazon.com has come up with another new and exciting way to keep its brand out in front of potential customers.

The e-commerce giant has put a so-called Treasure Truck on the streets of Seattle. Each day the “Treasure Truck cruises to different neighborhoods loaded to the gills with one amazing item you won’t want to miss,” the company says. Photos on social media show the truck has a sign that says, "What's on the truck today?"

The new fiscal year is off to a good start at Bed Bath & Beyond according to CEO Steve Temares who credits a wide range of omnichannel initiatives.

Sales in Bed Bath & Beyond’s first quarter ended May 30, increased 3.1% to $2.738 billion and same store sales increased 2.2%. Net income declined to $158.5 million from $187.1 million while a strong stock buyback program allowed earnings per share to remain flat.

Online pricing intelligence provider 360pi compared Amazon.com and Walmart.com prices earlier this year in a dynamic pricing study and discovered Walmart changed its prices more often than Amazon.

The company looked at Amazon.com and Walmart.com prices comparing a basket of grocery pantry/household items spanning a number of CPG brands with a non-grocery basket (such as toys, electronics and tools) shopped on Amazon.com and Walmart.com between April 9 and June 9, 2015.

Three key finding from the report were:

New York -- Walmart’s Neighborhood Markets format offers a compelling source of new sales growth for the nation’s largest retailer, according to a report by Moody’s.

Despite strategic shifts to compete more successfully with the company, traditional supermarkets will feel the pressure as Walmart moves to increase its already dominant share of the US grocery segment.

New York – Retail real estate giant Simon has announced the winners of its inaugural 'Simon Launch,” a retail startup competition aimed at uncovering, investing in, and accelerating top startups in the retail industry. 

The winning startups, which were selected from more than 300 applications, are:

Franklin, Tenn. - Much of the retail industry’s $642.6 billion in annual returns worldwide ($246.3 billion in North America) can be prevented.

That’s according to a new research report from retail analyst firm IHL Group, commissioned by OrderDynamics, “Retailers and the Ghost Economy: The Haunting of Returns,” which finds that quality problems/product defects are the leading cause of retail returns.

Carpinteria, Calif. -- With more Americans using credit, debit and prepaid goods to pay for goods and services, the amount merchants pay to process those cards continues to rise.