Retail

San Diego – Ninety-three percent of U.S. families are doing back-to-school shopping for students age 18 and younger this year and are expected to spend a total of $72.5 billion. Results of the 2013 Back to School Intentions Study from TrendSource show that school supplies are far and away the most popular item, with 95% of back-to-school shoppers buying them.

Seattle -- Starbucks Coffee Company will enter the country of Columbia, opening a store in the first half of 2014 in Bogota. It will be operated through a joint venture between the company's Latin American franchisee, Alsea, and the food company Grupo Nutresa.

Starbucks said it has "aggressive plans" to open locations in Bogota and other major cities throughout Colombia over the next five years.

New York -- Parents shopping for back –to-school goods react positively to ads that focus on sales and deals to maximize their appeal to shoppers, according to SAP Retail, and they react negatively to commercials that only serve as a reminder of the season. Using SAP’s social media analytics software, the company gathered social sentiment around the 2013 back-to-school season, analyzing more than 600,000 conversations across social channels, including Twitter and Facebook.

Armonk, N.Y. – Back-to-school sales may have been stronger than anticipated this year, judging by online sales performance in July and August. According to the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, online sales saw substantial gains from July through the third week in August, fueled by double-digit growth in mobile buying.

Specific findings for online sales activity in each month include:

July

Woonsocket, R.I. – CVS Caremark is evaluating data on prescriptions filled at CVS/pharmacy to identify providers with extreme patterns of prescribing high-risk drugs. Providers who cannot offer a reasonable explanation for these patterns have their controlled substance dispensing operations suspended.

West Chester, Pa. -- QVC promoted Alex Miller to the position of senior VP of digital commerce and Dave Caputo to the position of senior VP of TV production and operations.

Miller will now be responsible for the customer experience across QVC's web, mobile, tablet and social platforms.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holdings Corp. has been selected to participate in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star National Building Competition: Battle of the Buildings, which is designed to help improve the energy efficiency of commercial buildings and protect the environment.

New York -- Hedge fund manager and activist investor William Ackman is selling his entire stake in J.C. Penney.

Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, Penney’s single biggest shareholder with an approximate 18% stake, is offering its roughly 39.1 million shares for sale and used Citigroup as the bookrunner for the deal, Reuters reported. Penney filed a prospectus for the sale.