eCommerce

Chapel Hill, N.C. -- Performance Bicycle, the nation’s largest specialty bike retailer, announced that in April it will open six new stores in four states nationwide.

The expansion includes stores in Sacramento and Berkeley, Calif.; Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin, Texas; Atlanta, and the company’s first ever store in Idaho, in Boise.

These six locations join Performance Bicycle’s 94 existing stores.

After a year of steadily declining delinquency rates in Target’s credit portfolio, January proved to be a month of stabilization as the percentage of those 60 and 90 days past due on their accounts held steady when compared with the prior month. Accounts 60 days past due represented 4.2% of credit card receivables in January and accounts 90 days past due represented 3.1%. Both figures were identical to levels recorded in December, but well below peak levels seen in February 2010 when the 60 and 90 day past due rates hit their fiscal year peaks of 6.1% and 4.5%, respectively.

New York City -- Barneys New York CEO Mark Lee said Monday that he has plans to launch a renovation program for existing stores as well as an overhaul to the retailer’s website.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Lee said at a Monday morning breakfast that changes will be substantial, as the retailer has the largest renovation budget for existing stores that Barneys has seen in at least seven years.

New York City -- Crate and Barrel, along with Finnish textile and design company Marimekko, said Friday they are extending their longtime collaboration to roll out more than 20 shop-in-shops in Crate and Barrel stores across the United States and Canada over the next three years.

The launch kicks off this spring with four new shop-in-shop locations: New York (Madison Avenue), Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In addition, a Marimekko e-commerce 'shop' will be added to the Crate and Barrel website later this season, according to both companies.

Grapevine, Texas -- GameStop Corp. said Friday its board has approved buying back up to $500 million worth of the company's stock and bonds over the next 18 months.

The retailer said the new $500 million allotment will replace a previous $300 million already set aside for buybacks, of which $138.4 million was left to spend. Stock buybacks reduce the number of outstanding shares, which boosts per-share earnings and expands the size if current shareholders' stakes.

RESTON, Va.  -- According to comScore's Q4 2010  U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, online retail spending reached a record $43.4 billion for the quarter, up 11% versus year ago. This growth rate represented the fifth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and second quarter of double-digit growth rates in the past year.

Brisbane, Calif. -- Bebe Stores reported a loss for its second quarter as bad weather cut into sales and it closed some stores.

The clothing company posted a loss of $2.7 million for the quarter compared with a profit of $2.4 million in the same period last year.

Revenue fell 2% to $132.7 million for the period that ended Jan. 1.

Same-store sales were flat for the quarter, compared with a drop of 22.5% a year earlier.

New York City -- January saw strong growth across most retail categories, continuing the positive performance from fourth quarter 2010, albeit at a slightly slower pace, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, a report on national retail and services sales that is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network and survey-based estimates for other payment forms, such as cash and check.