Retail

Debra Berman, former chief marketing office of J.C. Penney, is joining Yahoo in the new position of senior VP of consumer marketing, effective July 6.

"In this newly created role Debra will oversee product marketing, help drive audience engagement and lead consumer brand strategy," Yahoo chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt wrote in a company blog post on Friday.     

New York — Apple has opened its sixth store in Manhattan, on the Upper East Side in a Beaux Arts building that was originally the home of the U.S. Mortgage & Trust bank in the 1920s. The site, on Madison Avenue, most recently housed a luxury retailer.

Ottawa, Canada – The Shopify e-commerce platform is expanding a beta test of the Facebook “buy” button with select U.S. retailers, by invite only. Facebook began piloting the buy button, which lets desktop or mobile consumers click the “buy” call-to-action button on ads and page posts to purchase a product directly from a business, without leaving Facebook, in July 2014.

Etsy and the West Elm division of Williams-Sonoma continue to fuel the maker movement with new initiatives that were launched to coincide with a Presidential Proclamation establishing the National Week of Making.

In conjunction with an event at the White House and a proclamation by President Barack Obama, online retailer Etsy said it planned to expand its Craft Entrepreneurship program to 30 cities by July 2016 from the current 19 cities.

Framingham, Mass. — Staples Inc. has received clearance from the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China for its proposed $6.3 billion acquisition of Office Depot. Staples continues to seek clearance from regulatory agencies in the U.S., the European Union, Canada, and Australia.

The Commerce Commission of New Zealand gave its clearance for the transaction last week.

<The Neiman Marcus Group says currency exchange rates put pressure on traffic in the first quarter as the company reported a smaller than expected boost in same store sales. 

The retailer said same store sales increased 2.2% for the third quarter ended May 2 as the strong dollar had some impact on the retailer’s business.

New York — Walmart continues its building boom in Northwest Arkansas, opening a Neighborhood Market store just a few miles from the chain’s headquarters in Bentonville. During the past few years, company has added new Sam’s Clubs, Supercenters, a Walmart To Go convenience store, a grocery pick up facility and nearly 10 new Neighborhood Markets to the area.   While adding another new Neighborhood Market isn’t a huge deal, but the store’s location, its layout and some of the signing elements are noteworthy.

Kmart has overhauled its marketing team by making several personnel changes and replacing its CMO with a veteran from DSW.

According to Ad Age, the company has named Kelly Cook as its new chief marketing officer after Mark Andeer left the company.

Cook will be leading the company's "omnichannel transformation," according to Ad Age.

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