Retail

San Jose, Calif. – PayPal will release a new PayPal Here credit card reader that will include payment support for Microsoft Surface and other Windows devices. Later this year, PayPal will release an EMV-compliant PayPal Here reader to the U.S.

Location analytics solutions provider Esri is helping BJ’s Wholesale Club generate actionable business insights from club location data.

BJ’s use of Esri’s solutions was announced in conjunction with the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York. More specifically, BJ’s will use Esri’s location analytics solutions to aid in real estate research strategy and business insight analysis.

St. Louis -- Ikea plans to install solar energy panels on its 380,000-sq-ft. St. Louis store, due to open in fall 2015. Panel installation will begin this spring, with completion before the store’s opening, making the project the largest rooftop solar array in the State of Missouri.

The store’s 259,000-sq.-ft. solar array will consist of a 1.28-MW system, built with 4,085 panels, and will produce approximately 1,780,000 kWh of electricity annually for the store, the equivalent to reducing 1,227 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Redlands, Calif. -- BJ’s Wholesale Club announced that it has adopted Esri’s location analytics solutions to aid in real estate research strategy and business insight analysis.

New York -- The fast-growing online grocery delivery startup Instacart confirmed it has raised $220 million in a funding round led by the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. This latest round of funding values the San Francisco-based company, founded in 2012, at a whopping $2 billion, according to various reports.

Another retailer is looking to leverage technology to create an omnichannel experience for its customers.

Footwear retailer and manufacturer Aerosoles has teamed with Digital Management Inc. (DMI) to  deploy an advanced, feature-rich e-commerce website with responsive web design for mobile optimization.

New York -- A new index called the Price Perception Index provides insight into digital pricing strategies. The index, created by e-commerce startup Bommerang Commerce, measures how retailers optimize prices to attract buyers, compete with other retailers and build their business on a mix of profit margins and volume.

The first Price Perception Index looks at the complex competition between Amazon.com and Walmart.com.

WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. — Tops Friendly Markets, a grocer in upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania and western Vermont, is closing pharmacy departments in 27 of its 162 locations this month and transferring pharmacy prescriptions and inventory to five CVS/Pharmacy and 22 Rite Aid locations near each affected store.