eCommerce

New York -- Douglas Elliman Real Estate's Retail Group said it has arranged for luxury sportswear brand Le Civette to anchor its first U.S. store at 1242 Madison Avenue, between 89th and 90th Streets.  

The Italian-based retailer will locate its new store in the last available space along the block-front; neighbors include Jacadi, Mariana Antinori and Caramel Baby.

New Delhi -- According to a Thursday report by Reuters, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is examining the conditions around India’s decision to allow supermarkets to open stores in the country.

New York -- The latest data from Nielsen shows the number of U.S. convenience stores continues to expand and last year set a new record with 149,220 units.

That figures is up 1,094 units from the prior year so the increase amounts to only a 0.7% gain, according to the 2013 National Association of Convenience Stores/Nielsen Convenience Industry Store Count. Even so, the growth is noteworthy at a time when overall expansion of selling space in the broader retailer industry has remained stagnant even though the recession officially ended in 2009.

The Ecco shoe brand has engaged the services of Demandware to power its new U.S. e-commerce and mobile commerce site. The company also plans to use Demandware’s cloud platform to quickly and efficiently expand internationally, beginning with Canada.

Ecco products are sold online and in 4,000 branded locations in more than 90 countries. 

When Target recently announced its new online price matching policy, I’m sure I wasn’t the only retail analyst whose first thought was: “This could be a pretty big deal.” While a number of retailers (including Target itself) have experimented with similar price-matching or pricing guarantee programs in the past, this new policy takes things to a new level.

By Akhilesh Srivastava, [email protected]

CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. — Jim McGinty, CFO of teen retailer, Hot Topic, has resigned from the company, effective March 29, the company announced Monday. George Wehlitz, VP, Finance, will serve as the interim CFO.

“We are grateful for Jim’s committed service to the company over the past 12 years and wish him well in the next phase of his career,” said Lisa Harper, chairman and CEO of Hot Topic.

TRACY, Calif.   — Amazon will open a new fulfillment center in Tracy, Calif., creating hundreds of jobs in the process, the company announced.
 

NEW YORK — Expect to see more consumer package goods on warehouse club shelves, as a new survey reveals this to be a high growth area for CPG companies.

According to new research from Deloitte, consumer products executives expect their highest growth to come from the warehouse club channel compared with any other retail sales channel over the next three years, including mass merchandise, grocery, and e-commerce.

Walmart’s store count in Canada will increase by nine units during the coming fiscal year following an exceptional rate of growth in 2012.