eCommerce

Cincinnati - Macy’s Inc. plans to relocate its West Sacramento, California-based direct-to-consumer fulfillment center to a larger facility in a nearby location in Sacramento County to support continued sales growth driven by its omnichannel strategy. Contingent on approvals by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, Macy’s will begin operations in summer 2015 at a 385,000-sq.-ft. facility, creating approximately 100 new jobs.

San Francisco -- Gap Inc. is shutting down its Piperlime business. The company plans to close the brand’s online platform and single store in New York, by the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2015.  

The decision comes as Abe Peck, who has led Gap’s growth, innovation and digital unit, gets ready to step into the CEO suite next month.

“We plan to keep on pushing new ideas and look forward to seeing how we can apply what we’ve learned to the rest of the company,” Peck said in a statement.

Washington, D.C. – An estimated 184 million viewers will watch Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday, Feb. 1. According to NRF’s Super Bowl Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, average viewer spending will reach a survey high of $77.88, up from $68.27 in 2013.

Total spending is expected to reach $14.3 billion. Young adults ages 18-24 plan on spending an average of $95.92; those ages 25-34 and 35-44, however, will spend slightly more at an average of $101.54 and $102.82, respectively.

New York -- Sears Holdings has a new leader for its Kmart pharmacy division. The company announced that it has hired Phil Keough as senior VP and president, pharmacy.

Keough most recently served as CEO and president of Millennium Pharmacy Systems, a long-term care pharmacy provider, and led the sale of the company to PharMerica.

Walmart is capping off the end of its fiscal year with a flurry of activity, as the retailer is poised to open more stores in Canada.

Walmart said it will open 11 new supercenters by Jan. 29, completing its expansion for the company's current fiscal year ending Jan. 31.

These openings will bring Walmart’s total store count in Canada to 394 stores.

New York – Mobile apps have a lot of potential uses, but in 2015 retailers will likely focus on consumer engagement. According to the 2015 E-commerce Industry Outlook report from performance marketing technology company Criteo, 42% of retail executives and ad agencies rank consumer engagement as the primary goal of mobile app strategies.

Other Criteo predictions, based on data insights from billions of online transactions, include:

Louisville, Colo. -- Nordstrom ranked as consumers’ favorite fashion retailer for the third consecutive year, followed by Kohl’s, T.J. Maxx, Macy’s and Dillard’s. That’s according to a study by Market Force Information, a provider of customer intelligence solutions.

Sears Holdings has a new leader for its Kmart pharmacy division. The company announced that it has hired  Phil Keough as SVP and president, pharmacy.

Keough most recently served as CEO and president of Millennium Pharmacy Systems, a long-term care pharmacy provider, and led the sale of the company to PharMerica.

In his new role with Sears Holdings, Keough will be responsible for leading the Kmart Pharmacy business unit and driving Shop Your Way member engagement to enable online and in-store growth of the company’s Health & Wellness businesses.