eCommerce

Bexley, Ohio -- Stanbery Development said it has named former Jos. A. Bank exec Stephen E. Gallant as director of construction and tenant coordination as it returns to active development of shopping centers. Gallant's experience includes responsibility for numerous retail design concepts as well as associated rollouts of new stores ranging from 850 sq. ft. to 250,000 sq. ft. Most recently, Gallant managed real estate portfolios and retail tenant construction projects for Skye Group and The Stanchion Group, respectively. As VP of facilities management for Jos. A.

Englewood, Colo. – Home shopping retailer QVC is expanding its omnichannel reach. QVC parent company Liberty Interactive Corp. is purchasing struggling online retailer Zulily Inc. for $2.4 billion in cash and stock.

Bellingham, Wash. – West Coast regional grocer Haggen is scaling back some highly ambitious growth plans. Haggen, which made headlines by buying 146 divested Albertson’s and Safeway stores as an 18-unit chain in December 2014, is closing or selling a number of locations in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Phoenix – Holiday shopping often starts earlier than commonly thought and also frequently being online. According to a new survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers from G/O Digital, 62% of respondents go straight to search engines when researching gifts for the holiday season and more than three-quarters look online for holiday shopping deals and discounts.

New York – As millennial moms are making back-to-school preparations that include planning school lunches, many are turning to their peers and the Internet to get ideas. According to a survey of millennial moms about their back-to-school lunch plans by online review site Influenster, word of mouth (79%) is the top influencer for school lunch shopping decisions.

That is followed by online reviews (59%), social media (57%), brand websites (43%), television (37%), news websites (16%) and newspapers (15%).

QVC just gained some credibility among hipsters and millennials by buying a popular Internet flash sale site that caters to those younger shoppers.

Oakland, Calif. – Stores are apparently failing to deliver the goods when it comes to providing customers the products they want, when they want them. New research from supply chain technology provider GT Nexus shows that 75% of U.S. adults have found a product unavailable in a store in the past 12 months.

And 38% of U.S. adults experienced in-store stock-outs often or very often in the past 12 months.

Philadelphia – Although net income at Urban Outfitters Inc. slightly slipped in the second quarter of fiscal 2016 compared to the same period a year earlier, it still beat Wall Street expectations. Net income totaled $66.84 million, down 1% from $67.5 million.