eCommerce

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.

Miami – The Related Group is set to transform the Miami suburb of Doral with the massive 600,000 sq. ft. CityPlace Doral. The $800 million mixed-use development components include 240,000 sq. ft. commercial space, 1,000 luxury residential units and Boutique Boulevard -- more than 40 shopping, entertainment and dining venues. Once complete, the project will offer the area’s only walkable luxury shopping plaza.

JCPenney 's renewed focus on omnichannel seems to be improving profitability for the retailer, which reported sales and revenue increases in the second quarter.

The company posted a net loss of $138 million, or 45 cents a share, in the quarter that ended Aug. 1, compared with a loss of $172 million, or 56 cents a share, a year ago. Total sales increased 2.7 percent from $2.80 billion a year ago to $2.89 billion. Same-store sales were up 4.1% and better than results also reported this week from Macy’s, Kohl’s and Dillard’s.