eCommerce

Off-price retailer Ollie’s quietly doubled in size the past few years and now the company plans to go public, accelerating growth of no-frills stores it affectionately refers to as “semi-lovely” warehouses.

Ollie’s operates 181 stores in the Eastern U.S. that last year generated annual sales $638 million and net income of $26.9 million.

Target chairman and CEO Brian Cornell commented on the chain’s new partnership with CVS Health in a Q&A on Target’s blog, A Bullseye View. Here are some excerpts: 

Gap Inc. is planning to close 175 of its Gap stores and streamline its workforce by as many as 250 positions as the struggling retailer moves to re-ignite productivity and growth at its namesake brand.

The company says the series of strategic actions are part of a comprehensive effort to deliver more consistent and compelling product collections and engage customers across all channels.

Neckarlsum, Germany — Another German supermarket retailer has its sights set on the United States: Discount grocer Lidl on Friday announced it is establishing a U.S. corporate headquarters, in Arlington County, Va. The move comes as rival Aldi contines to aggressively expand throughout the United States.

Wayne, New Jersey — Toys "R" Us Inc. narrowed its losses in the fiscal first quarter. But the chain’s revenue and same-store sales both fell amid a decrease in promotional activities and weakness in the baby and entertainment segments.

Toys “R” Us recently appointed former Domino’s Pizza chief executive David Brandon as its next CEO, effective July 1. He will take the reins from current CEO Antonio Urcelay.

Dallas — Neiman Marcus Group posted a profit of $19.8 million for the third quarter, compared with a year-earlier loss of $8 million. (The quarter included a $16 million charge for amortization of intangible assets, compared with a $36 million charge a year earlier.)

Revenue for the period ended May 2 grew to $1.22 billion from $1.16 billion in the year-ago period, boosted by Neiman’s acqusition of luxury online retailer MyTheresa in fall 2014.

Ottawa, Canada – The Shopify e-commerce platform is expanding a beta test of the Facebook “buy” button with select U.S. retailers, by invite only. Facebook began piloting the buy button, which lets desktop or mobile consumers click the “buy” call-to-action button on ads and page posts to purchase a product directly from a business, without leaving Facebook, in July 2014.

Montreal, Canada — Multidev Technologies Inc., a developer of ERP and omnichannel solutions for retailers, is adding web marketplace integration to its ChainDrive enterprise retail management platform. Users will be able to market, promote and sell their products through e-commerce channels including Amazon, eBay, Rakuten, and Newegg.
 

New York — Walmart continues its building boom in Northwest Arkansas, opening a Neighborhood Market store just a few miles from the chain’s headquarters in Bentonville. During the past few years, company has added new Sam’s Clubs, Supercenters, a Walmart To Go convenience store, a grocery pick up facility and nearly 10 new Neighborhood Markets to the area.   While adding another new Neighborhood Market isn’t a huge deal, but the store’s location, its layout and some of the signing elements are noteworthy.

LAKELAND, Fla. — Publix Super Markets may be considering opening a smaller-store format, according to a report in The Gainesville Sun.