eCommerce

Shoppers in need of same-day delivery of Thai oyster sauce or Indonesian soy sauce may not have to leave their homes to buy the ingredients if Instacart has any say about it.

The online grocery delivery service based in San Francisco announced Wednesday that it would begin delivering to Boston and Cambridge residents from H Mart, one of the largest and fastest growing Asian grocery chains in the United States.

New York – Retail real estate giant Simon has announced the winners of its inaugural 'Simon Launch,” a retail startup competition aimed at uncovering, investing in, and accelerating top startups in the retail industry. 

The winning startups, which were selected from more than 300 applications, are:

The combination of Royal Ahold and Delhaize Groupe creates a new super-regional chain along the Eastern Seaboard that will serve 50 million customers weekly and generate annual sales of more than $60 billion.

The merger announcement was highly anticipated following months of speculation followed by confirmation of talks between the companies. Now that the merger agreement has been reached, Ahold and Delhaize said they expect the deal to close by mid-2016.

Menlo Park, Calif. - Same-day delivery company Deliv has acquired WeDeliver, a Chicago-based delivery service that powers same-day delivery for local retailers. Launched in early 2013, WeDeliver provides same-day delivery services for more than 200 retailers in the Chicago area

Much of the retail industry’s annual costs in returns can be prevented, according to a new survey.

Franklin, Tenn. - Much of the retail industry’s $642.6 billion in annual returns worldwide ($246.3 billion in North America) can be prevented.

That’s according to a new research report from retail analyst firm IHL Group, commissioned by OrderDynamics, “Retailers and the Ghost Economy: The Haunting of Returns,” which finds that quality problems/product defects are the leading cause of retail returns.

National food, beverage and household brands continue to lose their place in Americans’ shopping carts, according to a new survey.

Deloitte’s annual American Pantry Study of more than 354 brands across 34 product categories found that nearly three in four (73%) of consumer packaged goods categories show an overall decline in their status as “must have” brands.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will no longer sell merchandise featuring the Confederate flag in its stores or online. The retailer is removing the flag, long a source of controversy due to its connections to slavery and use as a symbol by white supremacists, in the wake of a racially-motivated mass shooting at a historically black Charleston, South Carolina church.