eCommerce

Atlanta – A variety of costs drove net earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2014 at Aaron’s Inc. down 67% to $8.5 million from $25.9 million in the same period a year earlier. Expenses related to Aaron’s April 2014 purchase of lease-to-own company Progressive Finance Holdings, as well as advisory and strategic costs and costs related to store closures, impacted net earnings.

A heightened emphasis on e-commerce, store closures and operational efficiencies are among the strategic initiatives underway at Aaron’s where the operator of 2,100 stores is looking to restore growth of furniture, electronics, appliances and accessories.

The company posted disappointing second quarter results which prompted CEO Ronald Allen to elaborate on several strategies the company had highlighted earlier this year.

New York -- Unlimited ebook subscription service provider Oyster has launched Web and mobile Web readers. Now available to read on Web and mobile web browsers, the expansion marks Oyster's second new platform since June 2014, when it launched an Android platform.

Oyster continues its partnership with two of the five largest publishers in the world, and six of the top 10. Oyster is available for $9.95 per month and scrolls top to bottom like a blog.

Philadelphia -- Destination Maternity Corp. has stopped its pursuit of the United Kingdom’s Britain's Mothercare Plc chain after having two bid proposals rejected.

Protein is the hot nutritional trend these days and Quest Nutrition has found a way to create a first-of-its-kind baked chip with 21 grams of protein per serving.

The company bills its new Quest Protein Chips as the world’s first high-protein snack potato chip and contends the product offers a revolutionary potato chip experience. The chips are actually good for people, according to the company, as opposed to simply being less bad than other snacks high in fat and salt.

Urban Outfitters has gone big — really big — in New York City, opening a 57,000-sq.-ft. “lifestyle center” store in Manhattan’s Herald Square area. The space, the brand’s largest location to date, is big on in-store shops and includes such extras as a hair salon, bookshop, coffee bar and photography shop (with a booth for printing Instagram snapshots). All this is featured along with Urban’s menswear, womenswear and home collections.

San Jose, Calif. – EBay is offering $3.48 billion in debt bonds in a sale that will close July 28. EBay intends to use the net proceeds from the offering, for general corporate purposes including loan repayments.

$400 million of the debt will mature in 2017, with the rest coming due in stages through 2024.

By Sandy Skrovan, U.S. research director at Planet Retail