eCommerce

SAN FRANCISCO -- Ebay announced that it has added a new feature to Ebay.com that will allow shoppers to check product and merchandise availability at local retailers. The feature is made possible through Ebay's partnership with Milo, the leading local shopping engine that Ebay acquired last year.

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores plans to expand its presence in the smaller cities of China, Ed Chan, CEO and president of the company’s China operations, said today at an investor meeting by video conference, Bloomberg reported.

The discounter may also buy more land to build stores in China, which it predicted will be the world’s largest grocery market by 2014, according to the report. Wal-Mart is building its seventh Sam’s Club outlet in the northeastern port city of Dalian, on the first plot of land it bought in the country.

New York City -- Walmart, Target, The Home Depot, Best Buy and CVS took top honors in Interbrand’s annual ranking of the 50 most valuable U.S. retail brands. The U.S. brands are valued in collaboration with Interbrand Design Forum, the retail experience group within Interbrand.

In a move to generate online traffic and pre-orders for the upcoming release of Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never documentary, Walmart.com this week offered autographed copies of the DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack for $24.96. Bieber personally autographed 1,800 copies of the combo-pack, which chronicles his rise to become a pop phenomenon. The strategy appeared to work as by mid-day Thursday the autographed copies were no where to be found on Walmart.com, although there was plenty of other Bieber paraphernalia.

HANGZHOU, China -- Gap Inc. is expanding its presence in China. The company announced that it has opened an online Gap store (gap.tmall.com) on Taobao Mall, the business-to-consumer platform within Taobao, China’s largest retail website. Gap's Taobao Mall store will offer a wide selection of stylish products from Gap, GapKids and baby gap, the company reported.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores’ Scott Price, CEO for Asia, said Wednesday that the retailer makes $16 billion in annual sales in Japan, China and India.

In a report broadcast on Wal-Mart’s website and covered by Bloomberg, Price said that operations in Japan have $8 billion annual sales from 414 stores with 36,000 workers.

Annual revenue is $7.5 billion in China, generated by 329 stores, and sales in India are less than $1 billion a year, according to Price.

San Francisco -- Gap said Wednesday it has opened an online store on China’s largest retail website.

Gap's Taobao Mall store, gap.tmall.com, will offer items from Gap, GapKids and baby gap.

Sacramento, Calif. -- Voit Real Estate Services announced that the Gallelli Retail Team, led by Jason K. Gallelli, has joined the Sacramento office of Voit.

In their previous role with Colliers International, The Gallelli Retail Team represented more than 50 Northern California shopping centers, as well as representing more than 25 national retailers, such as Cinemark Theatres, Best Buy, TJX Companies, Costco, Sprouts Farmers Market, Chipotle, and Panera Bread.