eCommerce

South Deerfield, Mass. -- The Yankee Candle Co. has opened its first company-owned retail stores in Canada. Yankee Candle will open five stores in the greater Toronto area before Sept. 16. The first three locations in Pickering, St. Catharine's and Hamilton, Ontario, are now open. In the coming weeks, the company will open stores in Barre and Kitchener, Ontario.

Tarrytown, N.Y. -- DLC Management Corp, a national owner and operator of open-air shopping centers, announces Wednesday the launch of a new social media initiative that includes both business-to-business and business-to-consumer social networks.

DALLAS — While Zale Corp. posted a nearly 10% comps increase for its fourth quarter, higher commodity costs lead to a wider net loss for the period. The company stands to gain even more in the way of sales, with additional financing options for its customers.

London -- Grocery giant Tesco PLC said Wednesday it is pulling out of Japan, which means shuttering 129 small, leasehold-owned stores in the Greater Tokyo area, which employ 4,000 people. The country is the smallest of Tesco’s international retail businesses, and the weakest for sales growth in the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

“Having made considerable efforts in Japan, we have concluded that we cannot build a sufficiently scalable business,” said Philip Clarke, CEO.

Tuscaloosa, Ala. -- Dallas-based Cypress Equities said that local fashion boutique Soca Clothing will open a new store at Midtown Village, located in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The new 1,400-sq.-ft. store is slated to open in September.

Midtown Village is a 350,000-sq.-ft. mixed-use community in the heart of Tuscaloosa featuring retail and restaurant space, as well as office suites.
 

NEW YORK — Barnes & Noble reported that total sales for the first quarter were $1.4 billion, a 2% increase compared with the prior year. Sales through BN.com increased 37% as compared with the prior year to $198 million, with comparable sales increasing 65%. This increase was driven by strong demand for the Nook product line, including the continued success of the Nook Color, the mid-quarter launch of the Nook Simple Touch Reader and a quadrupling of digital content sales over last year’s first quarter.

Phoenix -- Cole Real Estate Investments said Monday that it has acquired a portfolio of 11 PetSmart retail properties for $74 million.

The approximately 300,000-sq.-ft. triple-net leased portfolio is located in primary markets in California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Texas. The 11 individual retail properties are leased to PetSmart, under one master lease, with an original 20-year lease term and approximately 10 years remaining, plus three automatic renewals for up to a total of 20 additional years.

Dallas -- Zale Corp. is teaming up with celebrity Jessica Simpson on an exclusive collection of diamond fashion jewelry. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Jessica Simpson, known as a pop music artist, actress and reality TV personality, has become quite successful in the fashion world. Her Jessica Simpson Collection, which sells shoes, clothing, fragrances and other goods, is said to be worth about $1 billion.