eCommerce

NEW YORK — Gilt Groupe Inc., a members-only online shopping destination, has named Melissa Liebling-Goldberg as editorial director for the women's category, effective immediately. In this position, Liebling-Goldberg is charged with expanding the category's editorial voice and building strong, lasting partnerships in the category while producing dynamic content for the website. Liebling-Goldberg will report directly to Jyothi Rao, general manager of Women's at Gilt Groupe.

ROME — Gap Inc. announced that it will open its first Gap flagship store in Rome on Via del Corso, the city’s premier shopping district. The company said it expects to open the store on July 30.

JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — Kathy Ireland has put her name on a new line of office furniture for Bush Furniture. The Kathy Ireland Office line will be available in retail stores as early as this fall.

Each of the four collections in the line - New York Skyline, Volcano Dusk, Sonnet and Grand Expressions – includes coordinated home office furnishings and storage accessories, creating a complete work-and-play environment for people in business and their families. 

New York City -- A Thursday report by Crain’s New York Business said that Lord & Taylor has signed a two-year contract with Green Mountain Energy Co. to provide the department store retailer with 100% of its electricity needs at two stores, including the Fifth Ave. flagship location.

The move has garnered the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency, which places Lord & Taylor, effective August, as No. 17 on the its Green Power Partnership list of Top 20 retailers embracing clean energy.

Rome -- Gap said Friday that it will debut its first Gap flagship store in Rome on Via del Corso, the city’s premier shopping district, on July 30.

The opening in Rome is part of Gap’s ongoing international growth strategy; it opened its first Gap and Banana Republic stores in Milan in November 2010.

Four additional Gap and Banana Republic stores are slated to open in Italy this year. The company also recently introduced its outlet concept to the country and said it expects to open additional stores in Italian outlet centers.

Chattanooga, Tenn. -- CBL & Associates Properties and Horizon Group Properties announced Friday that they will open The Outlet Shoppes at Oklahoma City on Aug. 5, fully leased with 83 stores.

Half the stores are new to Oklahoma City.

The center is scheduled to open to the public with such designer outlets as Nike, Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, Polo Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, Guess, Chico’s, Coach, Banana Republic, DKNY, J. Crew, Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Under Armour, Levi’s and Carters.

New York City -- According to court papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Borders Group is planning to auction off its intellectual property, including the Borders brand name and the Borders.com website, in a move that will enable the brand to live on after liquidation in a limited fashion.

The Sept. 14 auction, which will sell off the logo, trademarks, website, customer lists and other intellectual property, is expected to draw millions of dollars worth of offers.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- A Wednesday report by Bloomberg said that Wal-Mart Stores has named Morten Knudsen as CFO for Asia, as the retailer recasts its leadership roles in the region amidst top-heavy turnover.

Knudsen, who was previously VP for corporate finance in Asia for Danone, takes the financial chief spot for Wal-Mart Asia effective Sept. 1.

Since May, Walmart has lost Japanese chief Toru Noda and three of its top executives in China, including the CFO and COO Roland Lawrence and Rob Cissell, respectively.

Retailers who release monthly sales next Thursday will offer fresh insight and hard numbers on back-to-school shoppers’ early season spending behavior and that’s a good thing because so far opinions offered by forecasters are all over the place.

Back in early July, Customer Growth Partners said seasonal sales would grow by 6.2% to $467 billion, the most since 2006, despite economic headwinds.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid’s same-store sales increased by 1.9% in July, the retail pharmacy chain said Thursday.

During the four-week period ended July 23, comp sales jumped 3.1% on the front end and 1.4% in the pharmacy, including a 151 basis point reduction resulting from introduction of new generic drugs. Prescription counts decreased by 0.4%. Total sales during the four-week period were about $1.92 billion, a 1.6% increase over July 2010.