eCommerce

Two new offerings from Pinterest make the visually-oriented social media platform even more accessible for e-commerce.

First, Pinterest is launching a new feature called Pinterest Shop. Every day, Pinterest will offer what it calls “hand-picked” product selections. The curated assortments will include products from major retailers like Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, as well as from smaller boutique retailers.

Pinterest will roll out Pinterest Shop for desktop and mobile in the next couple of weeks.

Amazon’s first permanent physical store has opened in its hometown of Seattle and guess what? It looks a lot like the bookstores whose demise it facilitated.

In a letter to customers, the retailer announced the opening of the store located at 4601 26th Avenue NE in Seattle’s University Village on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Office Depot achieved impressive third quarter same-store sales growth and asserted that its merger with Staples could close as early as this year.

Genesco is expanding its reach geographically and generationally with its latest acquisition.

The company has entered into an agreement with the Aldo Group Inc. to acquire the 37-store Little Burgundy retail footwear chain in Canada.

American Eagle Outfitters has entered into an acquisition that could eventually see it open hundreds of new stores, and also enter a more upscale market. The teen apparel retailer has acquired upscale menswear brand Todd Synder, along with Snyder’s Tailgate Clothing Co., a vintage sports-inspired brand that operates a college-town store concept. American Eagle sees the potential to open as many as 200 Tailgate stores at universities nationwide, starting with Southeastern Conference and Big Ten colleges, according to the New York Times.

Levi Strauss & Co. is turning to the Internet of Things (IoT) as a solution to improve inventory visibility.

Levi’s is partnering with Intel to run a proof-of-concept of the new Intel IoT platform at three of the vertical apparel retailer’s stores. The pilot allows the Levi’s stores to gain visibility into what’s on the shelf or what might be running low. The goal is to make the process of inventory management more effective, maximizing in-stock and on-shelf availability of products.

Who are the leading women working in retail technology? Chain Store Age is accepting nominations for its annual feature recognizing female retail executives who are helping to transform the industry through technology.

The “Top 10 Women in Retail Tech” will celebrate the achievements of retail executives from all areas of technology. The winners will be profiled in a special section of the January 2016 issue of Chain Store Age as well as in an online report on chainstoreage.com

The splitting up of the eBay empire continues.

eBay has completed the previously announced sale of its eBay Enterprise division, which helps retailers enhance their online presence and e-commerce capabilities, to a consortium led by private equity firm Permira for $925 million. The consortium of buyers has separated eBay Enterprise into four distinct businesses: