eCommerce

Hampstead, Md. -- JoS. A. Bank Clothiers is now allowing international customers to place orders on its website. The retailer is now able to deliver website orders to customers in over 90 countries. JoS. A. Bank will utilize a third-party provider, FiftyOne Global Ecommerce (“FiftyOne”), New York City, to facilitate the checkout of the orders and to export and deliver the orders to the international destinations.

Customers paying with their Lowe’s Consumer Credit Card receive an immediate discount of 5% on in-stock and special order purchases bought in stores or online at lowes.com, Lowe's said.

Customers with single-receipt purchases of $299 or more can choose between the 5% discount or special financing currently advertised.

The 5% REDcard Rewards program Target launched last fall has contributed to sales results and served as a game changer on the pricing front with Walmart. Savvy shoppers are increasingly realizing the additional 5% savings they receive by using their REDcard can result in the price of a basket of food and consumables at Target slipping below the price of a comparable basket at Walmart.

Vienna, Va. -- Golfsmith announced it will open its first metro Washington, D.C., location in Tysons Corner, Va., this June. The new location is part of an aggressive growth strategy for the company.

Golfsmith’s stores offer an interactive experience, and customers are encouraged to test out clubs and gear inside the store before purchasing. They can also use one of the four custom-fitting studios to test drive new clubs. The company also offers free custom club fitting services.

New York City -- Hudson’s Bay Co. will test its HBC’s Home Outfitters concept in the United States, opening two stores in New Jersey in late summer, The Globe and Mail reported.

If successful, the company will further expand the home-goods concept, which will be called Lord & Taylor Home in the United States. (Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor are owned by Purchase, N.Y.-based NRDC Equity Partners.)

The most recent pricing survey from the equity research team at Credit Suisse shows that Target is either 3.1% more expensive or 1.9% less expensive than Walmart. The firm compared prices at stores in the Dallas and Chicago markets, as it does every month, and during March discovered the gap between the two competitors narrowed considerably.

“Target’s price gap with Walmart tightened from 4.2% in February to 3.1%,” according to the firm. “Target’s basket price decreased sequentially by 0.8% compared with Walmart’s 0.3% increase.”

Vancouver, Wash. -- Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency Centers said it has leased retail space to Pita Pit and Yolicous, which will open in a 2,032-sq.-ft. space this summer at Orchard Market Center, Phase II, located in Vancouver, Wash.

The 178,000-sq.-ft. shopping center is anchored by Wholesale Sports and LA Fitness, alongside national retailers such as Jo-Ann, Office Depot, Petco and Starbucks.

New York City -- Target has joined with American Express to offer a co-branded prepaid card that customers can reload and use at any store that accepts Amex cards, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

Target said in an e-mailed statement that it is selling the cards in a test at 100 stores in four cities: Chicago, Denver, Miami and Washington, D.C., the report said. The company said there is no projected end date.