eCommerce

Naperville, Ill. -- OfficeMax Inc. announced Thursday a new search engine on Officemax.com designed to speed up shopping and provide more accurate search and recommendation results.

In its first month with the new search engine, OfficeMax said that OfficeMax.com has already experienced an increase in conversion rate and customer satisfaction around site navigation, and more than a 60% increase in average revenue per visit.

UNION, N.J. — Bed Bath and Beyond's earnings per diluted share for its second quarter rose 5.4% from 98 cents ($224.3 million) from 93 cents ($229.4 million) last year.

The company reported net sales of approximately $2.6 billion, an increase of approximately 12.1% from net sales of approximately $2.3 billion reported in the fiscal second quarter of 2011.  Comparable-store sales in the fiscal second quarter of 2012 increased by approximately 3.5%, compared with an increase of approximately 5.6% in last year's fiscal second quarter.  

Foothills Ranch, Calif. -- The Wet Seal Inc. said Thursday it has dropped its temporary shareholder rights plan, citing feedback from stakeholders, and has proposed to expand its board to include two nominees of activist investor Clinton Group.

In July, Clinton Group, which owns approximately 7% of Wet Seal, called for a sale of the retailer, expressing dissatisfaction with its performance, and made a play for four seats on the board. In response, the retailer adopted a temporary shareholder rights plan with a 10% trigger.

Widespread media reports have Walmart discontinuing the sale of Amazon’s popular Kindle devices, which begs the questions what took so long and will we ever see a Walmart tablet.

Walmart’s decision to begin selling the Kindle was one of the more wrong-headed moves the company has ever made. A Kindle is Amazon’s version of a Gillette razor, essentially a device that provides consumers a portal to purchase Amazon’s other inventory, or in Gillette’s case, more blades. Target wisely gave Kindle the boot earlier this year.

Union, N.J. -- Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. reported Thursday that net income for the quarter ended Aug. 25 dipped 2.2% to $224.3 million, from $229.4 million in the same period last year. Results, negatively impacted by aggressive coupon discounting, trailed Wall Street’s expectations.

Sales increased 12.1% to $2.593 billion, and same-store sales climbed 3.5%, compared with an increase of 5.6% last year.

The retailer acquired Cost Plus in July for $495 million, adding 259 stores and a new e-commerce platform.

Arlington, Va. -- Retailers are up in arms over the proposed settlement filed in July of antitrust lawsuits filed by merchants against Visa, MasterCard and the nation's largest banks. A total of nine associations representing a broad swath of the retail industry expressed their reservations to members of Congress on Thursday, charging that their interests were not represented and asking Congress to reject that settlement.

Eighty percent of smarthphone users access retail content on their devices and Walmart is the third most popular destination, according to research from comScore Mobile Metrix 2.0.

The firm’s study found that 4 in every 5 smartphone users – 85.9 million in total – accessed retail content on their device in July. That figure is only going to increase, especially in the coming months as this year promises to be the most mobile Christmas yet.

Chicago -- A real estate report released Wednesday by Mid-America Real Estate Corp.’s Urban Team found that much of Chicago lacks the type of product that today’s downsized big-box retailers are looking for.