eCommerce

New York -- Hip online eyewear retailer Warby Parker continues its brick-and-mortar expansion. The company has opened its 12th store to date, in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.  

The 2,200-sq.-ft. store is Warby Parker’s first permanent location in the Midwest. It joins locations in cities across the nation, including such as New York, Miami, Dallas and Los Angeles.

Stein Mart says customers responded very positively to its spring assortment, boosting same store sales for the chain up nearly 5%.

The Florida-based company, which is planning an aggressive expansion plan for 2015, says total sales for the quarter increased 7.5%.

"We are very pleased with the response our customers are having to our spring assortment," said Jay Stein, Chief Executive Officer. "Our first quarter 4.8 percent comparable store sales increase continues the trend we saw at the end of last year and is a great way to start the year."

Shedding light on how Walmart plans to achieve digital and physical balance in its supply chain this week was Tracy Rosser, the retailer’s senior vice president of transportation and supply chain.

Speaking at an Institute for Supply Management conference in Phoenix, Rosser elaborate on Walmart’s plans to blend its traditional pallet drive supply chain focused on serving large format stores with new distribution challenges driven by shoppers evolving fulfillment expectations. T

New York -- H&M will open its largest store in the world, in Manhattan’s Herald Center, on May 20. The 63,000-sq.-ft. store, located at the southwest corner of 34th Street where Broadway and Avenue of the Americas converge, will be the fast-fashion giant’s 13th location in Manhattan. To celebrate opening day, music superstar John Legend will perform and cut the ribbon and twenty lucky winners will be chosen at random for a meet and greet.

New York -- Alibaba Group Holding Limited on Thursday announced that its CEO, Jonathan Lu, will step down and will be replaced by COO Daniel Zhang, effective May 10. Lu will remain on the company's board as vice chairman.

New York -- Online high-fashion retailer Net-A-Porter is launching a mobile-app-based social network that will allow users to buy luxury goods, interact, and do a host of other things as well.

The app, called “The Net Set allows consumers to recommend products to friends, check out the latest trends, upload and share images and shop from among 350 fashion collections. The brands will gain direct access to communicate with Net-a-Porter’s customers for the first time.

Austin, Texas -- Whole Foods Market on Wednesday announced plans to debut a new store format targeted at millenials. The company said the stores are expected to begin opening next year, and the expansion will be “fairly rapid.” It did not reveal the name of the new banner.

Boston -- Gordon Brothers Group and Hilco Merchant Resources announced that they will begin going-out-of-business sales at Simply Fashion and Dots retail locations nationwide beginning May 7.