eCommerce

Stein Mart has elected Burton M. Tansky to the company's board of directors. Tansky was with Neiman Marcus for 23 years, retiring as president and CEO in 2010.

Before being named as CEO for the Neiman Marcus Group in 2001, Tansky was president and CEO of Neiman Marcus Stores. Prior to this he served as CEO of Bergdorf Goodman, a division of the Neiman Marcus Group, and as president of Saks Fifth Avenue.

eBay performed strongly during the holiday. Mobile exceeded expectations for the year, allowing the global commerce platform and payments leader to finish the fourth quarter on a high note.

The company reported that revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 increased 13% to $4.5 billion, compared to the same period of 2012.

Both Marketplaces and PayPal achieved record mobile results in 2013, each exceeding $20 billion in mobile volume. Mobile users represented 40% of eBay’s 36 million new users and accounts in 2013.

Staples is launching a new technology trade-in program. Staples already recycles electronic office products for free and now small businesses and consumers can trade-in a variety of used technology devices for Staples eCash Cards, which can be used in Staples stores or on Staples.com.

Virtual Piggy, the provider of safe youth payments technology Oink, has teamed up with WorldPay US to increase its strategic 2014 merchant acquisition plans within the teen market.

The WorldPay payment processing platform is used for in-person credit and debit transactions, online and mobile payments. According to Oink, its relationship with WorldPay will bring the safe youth payments technology to the WorldPay merchant network and facilitate integrations into teen-focused retail websites and shops.

Nordstrom plans to open its third fulfillment center at Conewago Industrial Park in Elizabethtown, Pa., in summer 2015. The approximately 672,000-sq.-ft. building, with an additional 470,000-sq.-ft. mezzanine, will enable faster delivery for Nordstrom.com, Nordstrom mobile app and Nordstrom catalog orders.

The Federal Trade Commission has granted Kroger and Harris Teeter Supermarkets early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 with respect to the pending merger transaction between the two companies.
 
The early termination of the HSR waiting period satisfies one of the conditions to the closing of the pending merger, which remains subject to other customary closing conditions. Both companies expect the transaction to be completed before the end of January.

Hhgregg is offering online ordering with in-store pickup for Apple products, including iPhone, iPad and iPod models and Apple TV devices.

The move comes just a couple of weeks following the retailer’s preliminary third-quarter results which revealed poor performance in the consumer electronics and wireless categories and were below the company’s expectations.

Amazon has reportedly obtained a patent for “anticipatory shipping,” or a logistics technique using customer behavior and history to prepare items for shipping before they are actually ordered. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon received the patent in December 2013.