eCommerce

New York -- By 2023, online grocery sales are projected to range between $80 billion and $123 billion according to statistics released by Steve Bishop of Brick Meets Click (BMC) in a presentation at The Food Institute webinar "Get In On The Growth of Online Shopping." If realized, at the middle of those two projections online grocery sales would exceed today's sales of the nation's largest supermarket chain, Kroger.

New York - RKF has arranged two leases totaling 2,680-sq.-ft. at 1200 Madison Ave. on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with beauty retailer Bluemercury and upscale Scotland-based knitwear company Brora. The new Bluemercury, scheduled to the week of Oct. 6, will occupy 1,705-sq.-ft. and will be the brand’s second location on the Upper East Side.

Elmsford, N.Y. - Party City has promoted Gregg A. Melnick to the position of president of Party City Holdings, effective immediately. Party City Holdings is the parent company of the Party City Retail Group and Amscan Inc., among other entities.  

Most recently, Melnick was the president of the Party City Retail Group. Melnick will partner with all of the key department heads across both the retail and wholesale divisions to provide the leadership to strengthen the brands and create opportunities for greater collaboration.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens’ same-store stores increased 7.9% in September. Total sales increased 9.4%, to $6.5 billion compared to the same month in fiscal 2014, the company reported Friday.

Comparable store front-end sales rose 1.7%, while comparable store pharmacy sales rose 11.3%.

Walgreens opened nine stores during September, including four relocations, and closed four.

Los Angeles - DinCloud, a cloud services provider that helps businesses migrate to the cloud through business provisioning, has released customized cloud services for the retail industry including hosted virtual desktops. Store owners and employees from traditional brick-and-mortar or online retailers can use the desktops to manage store operations remotely from any device including a desktop, laptop, or tablet.

Under Armour, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and economic and community development commissioner Bill Hagerty announced the company's plans to build a new 1 million-sq.-ft. distribution and warehouse facility in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville.

Dublin, Calif. - Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in Illinois on Oct. 11. The stores are located in Hickory Point Mall in Decatur and Times Square Mall in Mount Vernon.  

These new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year. 

New York -- Consumers are well positioned to make the transition to mobile payments — with a little help from retailers, banks, payment networks and retailers, according to a new report from global consultancy Kurt Salmon.