eCommerce

Coming to the local mall — Amazon?
 
Amazon plans to open dozens of pop-up stores in malls across the nation, according to Business Insider.
 
The temporary stores, whose total could reach 100 next year, will showcase and sell the company's devices, particularly its Echo home speaker, the report said.
   

The Lands' End experience has arrived in the SoHo section of Manhattan.   Lands' End opened an 8,000-sq.-ft., two-floor temporary store, at 580 Broadway, featuring men's, women's and kids' apparel, footwear and accessories from the fall, holiday and winter along with a variety of personalization services and experiences.    

The holiday hiring wars have begun.

Target Corp. is the first national retailer to announce its holiday hiring plans with the news that it plans to hire 70,000 seasonal store associates. The amount is the same as last year.

In addition, the discounter plan to hire 7,500 employees to work in its distribution and fulfillment facilities during the holiday season, which is slightly up from last year.

The man who founded the Crazy Eddie consumer electronics chain has died at the age of 68.   Eddie Antar grew his company from one location in Brooklyn, New York, to the largest electronics retailer in the New York metro area in the 1980s, with 43 stores in four states.  The chain gained national fame for its television commercials which featured a maniacal-looking pitchman (which many people mistakenly took to be Antar) screaming at the end of the spot that Crazy Eddie’s prices were  “insane.”  

European consumers seem to be taking the adage, “buyer beware” very literally.

Unsure whether their online purchase will satisfy their needs until it actually arrives, 54% of shoppers reported they think about returning an item before they have even purchased it. And this mindset runs the gamut from decisions about apparel and electrical goods to home decor and furniture, according to “Making Money Out of Returns: The Essential Guide to Managing International Returns,” a report from fulfillment provider B2C Europe.

Out with the old, in with the new at Macerich’s Santa Monica Place, in Santa Monica, California.      WithMe, an interactive brick-and-mortar shopping experience that features limited runs of traditional and pure-play retail brands, has opened three new fashion pop-ups in its flagship space at the mall.  

Stuart Wetizman’s new service is connecting loyal shoppers with their “solemates.”

Called "The Ultimate Boot Guide,” the luxury footwear brand’s new digital service assists shoppers as they the hunt for their “perfect pair of boots” among more than 70 boot styles available this season on Stuartweitzman.com.

Saks Fifth Avenue’s new store in New York City is unlike any other the retailer has opened to date.

Located at Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan, the 86,000-sq.-ft. store is decidedly smaller than most Saks’ locations. It feels more like a boutique than a department store, with some traditional departments, such as handbags eliminated. (Handbags and certain other products are grouped by brand as opposed to category.) It also boasts such new services as a “power lunch” offering.