eCommerce

Washington, D.C. -- Import volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase a modest 1.1% in July over the same month last year, but a slow summer should be followed by significant increases as retailers head into the holiday season this fall, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released Wednesday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.


LOS ANGELES — Virtual Piggy has integrated its youth-friendly payment system with Claire’s Stores’ e-commerce website at www.claires.com.

FAIRFAX, Va. — Geeknet, the parent company of online retailer ThinkGeek.com, has appointed Julie Pangelinan as the company’s CFO, effective Aug. 12.

Pangelinan has more than 25 years of operations and financial experience, most recently as CFO of Interstate Hotels and Resorts and Sunrise Senior Living.

Draper, Utah -- Online eyewear retailer Glasses.com is releasing a 3D app for the iPad platform that allows customers to virtually try on glasses using a 180-degree 3D representation of their face. Proprietary facial modeling technology allows users to reproduce their face on an iPad screen and reposition glasses, as well as compare different glasses in a side-by-side view. A built-in “share” feature lets customers send virtual views to family and friends and receive tallied votes on their opinions.

New York -- Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th announced that it plans to open a new store in Atlanta, Georgia on July 18.

The 28,000-sq.-ft. store will be located in the Outlet Shoppes at Atlanta at Woodstock.

The store will be the third Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th in metropolitan Atlanta, but will be the first store to be modeled after the company’s “luxury-in-a-loft” store design, which highlights the merchandise and facilitates easy shopping.

Women’s apparel brand and retailer Lilly Pulitzer is turning to supply chain commerce solution provider Manhattan Associates to revamp its omnichannel retail capabilities so it can address its growing brick-and-mortar and e-commerce businesses. 

Cincinnati -- The Kroger Co. has reached an agreement to purchase all outstanding shares of Harris Teeter Supermarkets for $49.38 per share in cash, or about $2.5 billion. Kroger will finance the transaction with debt and also assume about $100 million of debt from Harris Teeter.

Harris Teeter operates 212 stores in North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Maryland, Tennessee, Delaware, Florida, Georgia and the District of Columbia primarily in the Carolinas. The company had revenues of approximately $4.5 billion for fiscal year 2012.

Bella Vista, Australia -- Woolworths Supermarket, a division of Australian retail conglomerate Woolworths Ltd., is optimizing home delivery routes for its growing e-commerce business using solutions from Descartes Systems Group. Woolworths is employing the Descartes Route Planner and Mobile applications with assistance from Descartes development partner The Brisbane Group. Using the Descartes technology, Woolworths combines route planning, tracking and execution with mobile functionality.