Mass Merchant

Online checkout problems are indicative of heavy e-commerce traffic, but still were not what Amazon.com hoped to see in the first hours of Prime Day.   According to multiple media reports, a glitch was causing problems for some U.S. and U.K. consumers attempting to check out their Amazon purchases the morning of Tuesday, July 12. Numerous shoppers tweeted their frustrations using hashtags such as #PrimeDay and #PrimeDayFail. A sampling of tweet complaints includes:  

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has been actively campaigning to keep federal caps on debit card swipe fees, and now its constituents are speaking out.  

DLC Management announced several promotions within its national leasing team, chief among them the naming of Chris Ressa as senior VP of the department.   A one-time Sherwin Williams real estate rep, Ressa joined DLC as a leasing rep in 2007 and rose through the ranks to become VP of the Midwest region and senior VP of the Northeast/Midwest region before being put in charge of nationwide leasing for this major owner and operator of open-air shopping centers.  

The retail tenant roster is filling out at the retail portion of Brickell City Centre, the billion-dollar residential and mixed-use project near completion in Miami. Signing on this week were Bath & Body Works, Pinko, Stitched, Suit Supply, and Victoria’s Secret.  

Walmart’s Lifelong Learning Program is getting a boost from a new partnership with educational technology and services company Cengage Learning.  

Consumers have spoken, and they have a favorite chain when it comes to buying appliance products.  

Specialty pet retailer Pet Supplies Plus is entering three new states as part of an aggressive 2016 expansion plan.   The chain is entering California, Colorado and Oklahoma, as well as furthering its expansion in the states of New Jersey, Texas, Missouri, Iowa and Georgia. In addition, Pet Supplies Plus recently signed a deal to open 10 new stores in Kansas City, and is on target to open approximately 60 new stores by the end of the year.  

While Amazon Prime Day got off to a bit of a rocky start, performance appears to be improving as the day goes on.   According to analysis from Clavis Insight, consumer electronics is the most popular category among Prime Day “spotlight deals,” promoted at the top of the page as especially in-demand items. As of 10 a.m. ET Amazon had run 21 spotlight deals, almost half of which were consumer electronics. At the same on the 2015 edition of Prime Day, Amazon had only posted 10 spotlight deals.