eCommerce

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – As part of a wide-ranging strategic review of its business, Sears Holdings Corp. is considering spinning off its Lands’ End and Sears Auto Center brands. The company’s Sears Canada subsidiary has also sold five Canadian store leases to Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited for about $383.4 million.

Bedford, Mass. – Daily mobile/online retail revenues surge an average of 55% on Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving), but a corresponding surge in attacks drives hard losses, on average, as much as $500,000 per hour or $8,000 per minute. In addition, a new study of 1,100 U.S., and U.K., retail IT staffers from RSA and the Ponemon Institute shows that 66% of respondents expect that disruption would result in customer churn that would damage reputation and brand and could push losses as high as $3.4 million from a single hour of disruption.

Target Canada is on schedule to open 33 additional Canadian store locations spanning across nine provinces, including its first stores in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

The retailer plans to open 31 stores Nov. 13, and the remaining two Nov. 22. Target will announce additional store openings beyond 2013 at a later date.  

Hudson’s Bay Company has appointed Michael Crotty as EVP, chief marketing officer, Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor and Russ Hardin as SVP, chief creative officer, Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor.

Both Crotty and Hardin will report to Liz Rodbell, incoming president, HBC Department Store Group, effective Nov. 11.

Toronto -- Hudson’s Bay Company has appointed Michael Crotty as executive VP, chief marketing officer, Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor. He will be responsible for the overall marketing strategy for Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor.

Crotty has more than 25 years multichannel retailing and brand management marketing experience  For the last 10 years, he has held progressively senior positions at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and, most recently, Nordstrom.

New York – Larry Kirshbaum, a publishing industry executive who joined Amazon.com’s New York-based publishing unit in 2011, is reportedly leaving the company to become a literary agent. According to the Associated Press, Kirshbaum, who formerly was in charge of the Time Warner Book Group will officially leave his position in January 2014.

Pittsburgh – Dick’s Sporting Goods opens five new stores across the U.S. on Nov. 8. The stores will be located in Dover, Del., Palm Desert, Calif., West Des Moines, Iowa, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Findlay, Ohio.

Dick’s will operate a total of 554 stores in the U.S. upon opening the five new stores. The Sioux Falls store will be the chain’s first store in South Dakota. This total will include three in Delaware, 32 in California, five in Iowa, and 38 in Ohio.

San Diego — Petco has opened its first store in Mexico and announced plans for continued expansion in Mexico and Latin America through a joint venture with Grupo Gigante of Mexico.

The companies plan to open as many as 50 Petco stores in Mexico and Latin America by 2020.