eCommerce

Phoenix — Vestar announced the signing of Forever 21’s newest concept store, F21 red, at Tempe Marketplace, in Tempe, Ariz. The 1,000-sq.-ft. store, the first F21 in Arizona, will open this fall.

The F21 red brand will offer a larger merchandise selection and lower prices of the trendy fashion forward styles for young men and women than the typical Forever 21 store.

Costa Mesa, Calif. — Anna's Linens Inc. announced it filed for  Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection on June 14. The retailer said it is working to negotiate a sale to DW Partners, a multi-strategy fund manager with $6 billion in assets.

The asset management firm would become “the stalking horse” bidder, and make the initial bid in a bankruptcy auction sale.

Wayne, N.J. — Toys ‘R Us Inc. has opened a new distribution center in Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry, France to support the company's expanding e-commerce business throughout France and in select sections of Europe. The 550,000-sq.-ft. facility will service retail distribution to the country's 48 store locations and e-commerce operations throughout France.

Seattle — Amazon.com is reportedly expanding the assortment of items eligible for free two-day shipping for members of its Prime paid subscription. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is now listing items shipped directly from third-party seller warehouses for free Prime two-day shipping, without any publicity.

Green Bay, Wisc. — Shopko continues to expand, with the opening of 15 Shopko Hometown stores across eight states this July.  The  new locations join 20 stores Shopko opened earlier this year and more than 15 additional stores the company plans to open in October.  

Philadelphia — Except for a momentary spike during the 2014 holiday season, conversion and add-to-cart rates have been dropping steadily year-over-year. However, according to the global Ecommerce Quarterly report from Monetate, personalized, relevant product recommendations help brands avoid this issue.

Los Angeles - Marketing services company Connexity Inc. has acquired the PriceGrabber retail lead generation platform and network. The company will provide shopping leads that result in more than $2 billion in annual sales for retailers and brands.

PriceGrabber's shopping-focused publisher network offers more than 2,000 retailers marketing access to tens of millions of shoppers each month from online shopping destinations such as Yahoo!, Ask.com and PriceGrabber.com. Retailers will manage a single lead channel.

Stores are once again the darlings of retail — even e-commerce pure plays are scrambling to establish brick-and-mortar locations, while established brands are busy exploring new ways to leverage their existing physical footprint. Many predicted that the store would survive — and indeed thrive — but few realized the full degree to which stores would become a coveted link within today’s customer-driven “commerce anywhere” shopping experience.

Efforts to transform the customer experience and optimize e-commerce capabilities at Toys”R”Us are getting a boost in Europe with a new distribution center.

The retailer says it has completed a new distribution center in Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry, France, to support the company's rapidly expanding e-commerce business throughout the country and in select sections of Europe.

Simon Property Group is giving shoppers a reason to come to that mall that doesn’t involve shopping.

The company is teaming up with Refinery29 to transform mall shopping into a summer festival experience with fashion "stages," beauty bars, and live musical performances. Style Festival takes inspiration from the music festival culture that has become a millennial rite of passage.