eCommerce

Miami Gardens, Fla. -- Palmetto Park, the owner of Palmetto Gardens Plaza, announced that its new anchor tenant Walmart Neighborhood Store has opened. The new store occupies 40,000 sq. ft. of the 63,000-sq.-ft. shopping center, located at 3799 NW 167th St. in Miami Gardens.

Palmetto Gardens Plaza will also feature T-Mobile, Cell Phone Repair, and Lee Nails, among other retailers, when construction on the remaining portion of the plaza is complete by the third quarter of this year.

Seattle --  A Seattle-based flash sales site may just be sputtering overseas, as a Forbes report on Thursday said that Zulily may shutter its United Kingdom operations, which currently serve as the concept’s first and only international office. According to Zulily CEO Darrell Cavens in a Forbes interview, changes in the apparel flash site’s international focus has led the company to consider its options.  

Momentum from Black Friday weekend continued through the holidays for Pier 1 Imports Inc.

The home furnishings retailer, which reported a disappointing third quarter in early November, reported an 8.2% increase in December same store sales. CEO Alex Smith said while sales in the third quarter were soft, November sales were strong versus a year ago, particularly over Thanksgiving weekend.

By Dave Weinberger, CBX

Have you read any 2015 retail trend forecasts lately? Let’s face it, many so-called trends for the year ahead — the need to focus on things like mobile payment, customization, foodservice, smaller formats or millennial shoppers, to name a few — are at this point just the cost of doing business.

Secaucus, N.J. – The Children’s Place Inc. has authorized a new $100 million share repurchase, with the goal of returning excess capital to shareholders. During the past five years, Children’s Place has returned more than $487 million to our shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.

Plano, Texas – It will not be a happy New Year for employees of some 40 J.C. Penney stores. The company on Thursday said that it plans to close approximately 40 stores, which represent less than 4% of its total store base, on or about April 4, 2015. The closures will affect about 2,250 employees.

Costco showed again in December why it’s the cream of the crop among warehouse club stores.

The Wash.-based retailer reported an increase of 8% in same store sales in the United States, excluding gasoline sales and foreign exchange. Same-store sales at international stores rose by 1%.

Net sales for the retailer rose 5% to $12.12 billion in December from $11.53 billion a year earlier.

San Jose, Calif. -- Despite some surprising showings over the holiday 2014 shopping season, a report by RetailNext said that overall traffic at brick-and-mortar stores dipped 7.1% for the Nov. 30-Jan. 3 shopping period.

The newly released Retail Performance Pulse also showed a 6.5% year-over-year decrease in sales.