eCommerce

A digital consumer touch-point long thought to offer little in the way of “hard” ROI appears to be changing that trend.

According to a study of aggregated, anonymized U.S. traffic and revenue data from Kibo (the new company created from the merger of MarketLive, Shopatron and Fiverun), there was a 138% increase in total social revenue during 2015 compared to 2014.

Fabletics, the fashion athletic brand co-founded by actress Kate Hudson, is setting up shop in the nation’s largest shopping mall.

The retailer is set to open at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, this spring. The 2,000-sq.-ft. store will feature the brand’s signature fashion-forward activewear for women and also its new line of men’s high performance athletic gear and lifestyle basics.

Fabletics was launched online in 2013. It made the leap to brick-and-mortar in fall 2015, and currently operates six stores.

The CEO of General Growth Properties caused a firestorm late Tuesday when he made a passing reference during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call that Amazon was planning to open 300 to 400 bookstores. On Wednesday, the mall giant issued a very short statement that poured water on the fire.

“General Growth Properties CEO Sandeep Mathrani has indicated that a statement he made concerning Amazon during GGP's earnings conference call held on February 2, 2016, was not intended to represent Amazon's plans.”

Same-store sales at Costco were mostly flat in January across the globe, mirroring reports from other retailers reporting soft sales.

According to Forbes, during the week of Feb. 1, eBay Inc. remediated a flaw in its network security program that allowed hackers to place malware within the “active content” eBay merchants use to deliver pop-up ads and other dynamic messaging to customers. However, this action may not be enough to address wider security issues at eBay. [Forbes]

Longtime Amazon executive Steve Kessel, whose team launched the first Kindle e-reader, is leading a retail store initiative at Amazon, ReCode.net reported. The report references two sources familiar with the plans, and states: “It’s not yet clear what those stores will sell or how they will be formatted, but the retail team’s mission is to reimagine what shopping in a physical store would be like if you merged the best of physical retail with the best of Amazon.

Genesco Inc. will be on the hunt for a new leader after its longtime president stepped down Tuesday.

The company announced that Genesco senior VP and president Ken Kocher has resigned. Kocher is expected to remain employed by the company in a consulting capacity for up to six months. The company has begun a search for Kocher's successor. In the interim, Genesco chairman, president and CEO Robert J. Dennis will act as the group's president.

Walmart is extending the reach of its online grocery pickup service in Canada.

After initially launching online grocery pickup at 11 Canadian stores in July 2015, Walmart is now offering online grocery pickup at 12 more stores in the Greater Toronto market. Orders can be placed at six stores as of Feb. 3 with first pickup Feb. 9; while orders can be placed Feb. 18 with first pickup Feb. 23 at the remaining six.