eCommerce

Saks Fifth Avenue is launching a garden-themed merchandising campaign just as floral patterns dominate the fashion runways this spring.

Volatile demand for firearms seems to be easing at Cabela’s, which reported a profit rise of 6.9% in the first quarter despite a drop in same store sales.

The TJX Cos. Inc. announced Wednesday that Chairman Bernard Cammarata will retire following the company’s annual shareholder meeting scheduled for June 11.

Amazon.com’s sales growth in the first quarter continued to outpace the overall e-commerce growth rate, especially Web services, but expenses related to interest and currency exchange caused the online leader to report a $57 million net loss.

Total sales for the quarter ended March 31 increased 15% to $22.72 billion but a strengthening of the U.S. Dollar caused a $1.3 billion currency exchange headwind. On a constant currency basis, which is how global retailers like to analyze their business, sales increased 22%.

San Jose, Calif. – eBay Inc. topped Wall Street expectations for both profit and revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. Growth in transactions and efforts to control expenses helped produce net income of $626 million, compared to a net loss of $2.33 billion the same quarter a year earlier.

King of Prussia, Pa. - eBay Enterprise, an eBay Inc. company, is releasing Magento Enterprise Edition 1.14.2. Magento’s new solutions include new automated product category sorting capabilities, integration of Google Tag Manager, and access to new automated functional tests.

In addition, the Magento Mobile Software Development Kit (SDK) enables retailers to create custom iOS applications, as well as provides a sample app that merchants can customize to accelerate their development.

Peoria, Ill. - P.F. Chang’s will be coming to the mixed-use Streets of St. Charles development in St. Charles, Missouri. The restaurant, which will be P.F. Chang’s first location in St. Charles County, will feature an Asian-inspired decor and offer outdoor bistro seating along the pedestrian-friendly streetscape.

Construction is expected to begin summer 2015, with an anticipated opening in early 2016.

Framingham, Mass. – Bernard Cammarata, 75, founder and chairman of The TJX Companies Inc., will retire June 11, 2015 after nearly 40 years with the company. Carol Meyrowitz, 61, who has served as CEO of TJX since January 2007, been a board director since 2006 and joined the company in 1983, will succeed him as chairman.

Montreal – Canadian grocery retailer Metro Inc. is interested in purchasing some of the 133 Canadian stores Target Corp. finished closing earlier this month. In an April 22 conference call with investors, Metro said the possibility exists that it will try to purchase certain former Target stores.

"There are a few of those stores that could be of interest to us down the road if they become available," Eric La Fleche, CEO of Metro, said during the call.

Seattle - While Amazon is winning the battle for smartphone shoppers in America, it has yet to achieve the same dominance in at least 10 other countries internationally. This is the key finding of a monthly report from Informate Mobile Intelligence that tracked and measured consumer use of smartphones in 12 countries during February 2015.

The new report reveals shopping apps as having the highest penetration in the U.S. at 60%, followed by India at 46%. The other 10 countries measured, by comparison, only had a median reach of about 18%.