eCommerce

New York — Retail developer Edens has selected four finalists for its annual Retail Challenge, a nation-wide student competition for the most compelling new retail concept. The announcement of the winner kicks off this year’s smART: The Art of Retail conference.

Both the Edens Retail Challenge and smART aspire to incubate new ideas, share knowledge and identify the next generation of industry thought leaders.

New York — Xcel Brands has announced the opening of the Isaac Mizrahi New York store in Woodstock, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. The 2,000-sq.-ft. shop will open on March 29.

Xcel Brands acquires, designs, licenses and markets consumer brands through an omnichannel sales strategy that includes interactive media, digital and brick-and-mortar retail. In 2011, the company acquired the Isaac Mizrahi New York designer apparel brand and an interest in Liz Claiborne

Vancouver, Canada – Amazon.com is the top digital Canadian retailer and U.S., retailers are generally outpacing their Canadian competitors in using digital channels such as online, mobile and social. According to the new “Chasm Retail 2.0” study from Chasm Digital, the top 10 digital retailers operating in Canada are:

1. Amazon
2. Best Buy
3. Home Depot
4. Sears
5. Lululemon
6. Costco
7. Chapters
8. London Drugs
9. Lowes
10. Canadian Tire

Foot Locker has elected Steven Oakland, president of international, foodservice and natural foods at the J.M. Smucker Company, as a director of the company.

Oakland has spent the bulk of his career at J.M. Smucker serving in increasingly senior positions. He has experience in domestic and international retail operations at the company, having also served as president of U.S. retail for Smucker's, Jif and Hungry Jack, and as GM of its Canadian operations.

Shopzilla, a leading source for connecting buyers and sellers online, has acquired Connexity, a pioneer in the programmatic media buying and optimization space.

More Americans this year are expected to put their tax returns in the bank. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF)’s Tax Returns Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, 46% of those expecting a refund this year will put their money into savings, up from 44% last year and the highest percent in the survey’s history.

Safeway has confirmed that it is in discussions concerning a possible transaction involving the sale of the company. However, the company declined to comment further at this time.

"Although the discussions are ongoing, the company has not reached an agreement on a transaction, and there can be no assurance that these discussions will lead to an agreement or a completed transaction," Safeway stated as part of its earnings release.

Seattle – Starbucks reportedly plans to soon include an automatic tipping feature on its Square mobile payment app.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Starbucks, which currently only uses the payment features of the Square app, will deploy a feature that both automatically prompts a customer to leave a tip in appropriate situations and computes tip amounts for them.

Madison, Wisc. – American TV & Appliance, an 11-store electronics chain with locations in Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois, is preparing to go out of business. The company is closing stores Feb. 18 and 19 to mark down prices and will launch its going-out-of-business sale at all locations on Feb. 20.

Cupertino, Calif. – Apple opened its first South American store in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Feb. 15. Brazil is a leading global market for smartphones and media reports indicate more than 1,700 customers attended the opening of the store.