eCommerce

CULVER CITY, Calif. — Glenn Hasen has joined Magento, the leading e-commerce platform part of the X.commerce division of Ebay, as VP global sales and channels. In his new role, Glenn will manage day-to-day operations of the sales organization and oversee merchant adoption, successful customer onboarding and retention of the Magento platform.

Walmart held an invite only media event at the San Bruno, Calif. headquarters of its global e-commerce subsidiary and several things were clear as news reports trickled out from the event.

For starters, Walmart is in full blown experimentation mode and probing many different aspects of how to serve digitally empowered customers even as customers are still figuring out how they want to be served.

New York -- Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th will open its doors in Chandler, Ariz., on Thursday, April 4, 2013.

The new 28,000-sq.-ft. store is located in Phoenix Premium Outlets, which is opening to the public that day. The new outlet center, owned and operated by Simon Property Group, is part of Wild Horse Pass, within the Gila River Indian Community, which includes hotels, a spa, casino, golf, an equestrian center, fine dining and more.

Palm Beach, Fla. -- Sloan’s, an upscale ice cream, candy and baked-goods emporium, has launched a national franchising program, targeting regions in Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, New York and New England and throughout California.

Seattle -- Amazon.com announced that it has agreed to acquire social site Goodreads, an online book recommendation community that has more than 16 millions around the globe. The financial terms of the deal, which enhances Amazon's already significant clout in the book publishing world, were not disclosed.

Carlisle, Pa. -- Ahold USA announced Friday it has appointed Paul Scorza as chief information officer for the company, effective April 1.

Scorza, a 30-year veteran of IBM, will oversee Ahold USA information management functions, with a focus on systems and business processes to improve efficiency, effectiveness, controls and operations.

The U.S. subsidiary of Netherlands-based Royal Ahold, operates the Stop & Shop, Giant-Carlisle and Giant-Landover supermarket banners and the Peapod online grocery service.
 

New York -- British grocery giant Tesco is moving closer to selling off its U.S. Fresh & Easy division, with Tesco CEO Philip Clarke traveling to the United States next week to try and strike a deal, according to a report in the British newspaper, The Telegraph.

Tesco has held discussions with Trader Joe’s and others about selling Fresh & Easy, but a break-up of the business is considered the most likely option, the report said. Other options include closing the business and selling off assets.

GRAPEVINE, Texas — GameStop reported that total global sales for the fourth quarter of 2012 were $3.56 billion compared with $3.58 billion in the prior year quarter. Consolidated comparable-store sales decreased 4.6% compared with the prior year quarter.