eCommerce

Walmart.com is the only conventional retailer to rank in the monthly Top 50 Web Properties report from comScore Media Metrix, but June traffic to the retailer’s site was below year-ago levels even as e-commerce is hailed as the next growth engine.

Washington, D.C. – Compared to a record-breaking back-to-school shopping season in 2012, this year’s back-to-school season will not be as impressive. New figures from the NRF and Prosper Insights show that families with school-age children will spend an average $634.78 on apparel, shoes, supplies and electronics, down about 8% from $688.62 last year. Total spending on back-to-school is expected to reach $26.7 billion.

New York – Gilt.com is launching the Gilt Insider Program, a new free rewards program offering Gilt members the opportunity to earn points for free by interacting with the site. Activities such as making purchases, referring friends and visiting online sales earn members points they can redeem for benefits such as access to early sales, exclusive discounts, free shipping and invites to special events.

NEW YORK — Gilt.com has launched a free rewards program called Gilt Insider Program, which will offer Gilt members opportunities to score points redeemable for a variety of benefits.

Members can earn points simply for interacting with the site, and can then redeem them to shop sales early, earn access to discounts, get free shipping and attend exclusive events.

Austin, Texas – Digital coupon provider RetailMeNot launches its IPO on Friday of 9,090,908 shares of its Series 1 common stock at a price to the public of $21 per share. Shares will be available on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "SALE." Of the shares in the offering, 4,545,454 shares are being offered by RetailMeNot and 4,545,454 shares are being offered by selling stockholders.

Seoul, South Korea – South Korean home shopping retailer NS Shopping is deploying mobile and analytics solutions from IBM to improve its omni-channel customer experience and relationship management.

NS Shopping currently sells its merchandise via television, catalogues and online, and will use IBM Smarter Commerce technology to integrate mobile and social channels into its retail environment.

Pleasanton, Calif. – Safeway reported a substantial decline in net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2013 as well as a drop in sales. Adjusted net income for the quarter was $8.4 million, compared to $122.7 million in the same quarter a year earlier. However, after adjusting for various legal expenses and loss from discontinued operations, net income for the quarter would have been $125.1 million.

Sales at Scholastic Corp fell sharply during the company’s fourth quarter ended May 31 and most of the drop was blamed on the waning popularity of the Hunger Games trilogy.

The global children's publishing, education and media company said sales declined to $506.9 million in the fourth quarter compared to $676.6 million last year and earnings per share fell to 76 cents from $1.86 last year.