eCommerce

Research Triangle Park, N.C. -- ChannelAdvisor Corporation, a provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions, is expanding its Webstores Amplifier with support for Bigcommerce, an e-commerce website platform that allows small and medium businesses to quickly set up online stores. The ChannelAdvisor Webstores Amplifier simplifies product creation, automatically synchronizes inventory and standardizes fulfillment across multiple online channels and retail websites for its customers.

Wayne, N.J. – Toys “R” Us is launching a nationwide in-store and online awareness campaign encouraging its customers to support the athletes participating the Special Olympics. Starting Feb. 1, by texting "Cheer" to 80888, customers can make a $5 donation via their mobile device that will help Special Olympics athletes.

As part of its digital strategy, Hudson’s Bay Company has created HBC Digital and appointed Michael Burgess as the newly created group’s president. Burgess will report to the office of the chairman.

HBC Digital will drive the digital commerce and marketing strategy and execution across all channels, in partnership with each of the company’s business units: Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Hudson’s Bay and HBC Outlets.

Less than two months after Sam’s Club named a new president and CEO, two of the warehouse club’s top executives are scheduled to weigh in on its digital direction at an event in late February.

Overstock said that it’s still adjusting to changes Google made to its search engine algorithms, which reduced the online retailer’s ranking in some search results during some periods. As a result, the company has had to emphasize other marketing channels, such as sponsored search.

Although sponsored search has generated revenue growth for the company, Overstock said that the move also incurs higher associated marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue than it had to pay prior to Google making its changes.

Amazon.com may have achieved record fourth-quarter sales of $25.6 billion, but its top line was well below what analysts expected and so were profits.

The company’s sales increased 20% to $25.6 billion during the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared to $21.3 billion the prior year. Analysts had forecast sales of slightly more than $26 billion. Meanwhile, Amazon said it earned profits of $239 million, or 51 cents a share, well ahead of prior year figures of $97 million and 21 cents a share, but substantially below the 74 cents analysts were expecting.

Mississauga, Ontario -- Target Corp. announced that it will continue its Canadian expansion in 2014 by adding another nine locations to the 124 Target stores now open in all 10 provinces. The majority of the new stores will open in Ontario, with single store additions planned for Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C.

San Mateo, Calif. - Feedzai, a data science company that uses real-time, machine-based learning to prevent fraud, it is now available in the U.S. market. With its foray into the U.S. market, Feedzai will begin selling to payment networks, banks and retailers to prevent fraud in omnichannel commerce.

London – Online luxury retailer Avenue 32 has launched a mobile and tablet strategy allowing designers to showcase their collections to the public without having to invest in their own online presence. Since its launch, mobile traffic has more than doubled and average transaction value has increased 270%.

Working in partnership with Usablenet, Avenue 32 provides seamless and customized experiences for both mobile and tablet; the mobile site provides a task-based experience whereas the tablet site is focused around browsing and discovery.

Burlington, Mass. – Demandware has acquired privately-held Mainstreet Commerce, a provider of cloud-based order management solutions. Demandware hopes the combination of its enterprise-class commerce platform and Mainstreet Commerce’s distributed order management solution will simplify order orchestration between online and in-store shopping processes; optimize store and Web inventory; and enable retailers to deliver a “buy anywhere, fulfill anywhere” consumer experience.