eCommerce

New York City - Barnes & Noble announced that it has bought back full ownership of its Nook e-reader business, which it plans to split into a separate company.   On Tuesday, the bookseller said that it acquired educational book publisher Pearson Inc.'s stake in Nook for $27.7 million; the deal closed Monday, and Barnes & Noble said it now owns Nook Media outright.  

Teen and pre-teen retailer Five Below landed two senior executives from Walmart.com and Ascena Retail Group for key roles as it looks to accelerate an already rapid pace of growth.

Walmart.com president and CEO Joel Anderson will join Five Below as president in July to oversee all aspects of merchandising, stores and marketing. Eric Specter, most recently EVP and chief integration officer for Ascena, will serve as Five Below’s chief administrative officer and oversee supply chain, information technology and real estate.

New York - Macy’s knows the holiday spirit doesn’t suddenly fade on Dec. 26. The retailer is offering “Week of Wonderful,” a seven-day shopping event from Sunday, Dec. 28 through Saturday, Jan. 3.  During Macy’s ‘Week of Wonderful,’ customers will find a wide assortment of fresh products at affordable prices to usher in the New Year.   

Guitar Center has chosen retailing veteran Darrell Webb to be the company's new president and CEO. From 2011 to 2013, Webb served as chairman and CEO of the Sports Authority.   Webb has more than 30 years of experience in retailing and has led several multibillion dollar companies through periods of rapid growth.  

New York - Retail sales worldwide, including both in-store and Internet purchases, will total nearly $22.5 trillion this year. According to new figures from EMarketer, the global retail market will see steady growth during the next few years, and in 2018, worldwide retail sales will increase 5.5% to reach $28.3 trillion.  

Sunnyvale, Calif. – Business accelerator Plug and Play Tech Center and Simon Properties are hosting an event, “Silicon Valley Retail CMO Summit 2015,” Feb. 4-6, 2015 at Plug and Play’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The event is open to chief marketing officers and other digital marketing decision-makers in the retail industry, and features expert speakers, a networking dinner, and an afternoon of themed start-up presentations.  

Vendors are leaving billions on the table because they forget to market to the chief marketing officer (CMO) rather than just the CIO and IT department.

According to a new study from IHL Group called “Hidden Treasure – The CMO’s Budget in Retail,” in 2015, the amount of IT purchased through the CMO’s budget will amount to $7.5 billion in North America. This figure is nearly as much as will be spent on core POS for 2015, or 12% of all North American IT spend for retail and hospitality in North America.

New York – The weekend of Dec. 20-21, which included “Super Saturday” (the last Saturday before Christmas) saw the highest daily back-to-back Internet traffic from online consumer retail shopping activity since tracking began before the Thanksgiving weekend. According to the Verizon Retail Index, average daily traffic was 119 on Saturday and 122 on Sunday.