Sales & Marketing

Ottawa, Canada – Home Depot is narrowing its price gap with Amazon.com, which typically offers the lowest overall prices on home improvement goods.

 According to a recent study from pricing analytics provider 360pi, “Building Up to Home Improvement Season,” Home Depot was the most aggressively priced home improvement “category killer,” with an average price of just more than 5% above Amazon, narrowing down to around 3% above Amazon by the end of the sampled period (May 1 – June 16, 2015).

Mooresville, N.C. – Lowe's Companies Inc. has promoted Tiffany L. Mason to senior VP of corporate finance and treasurer. Mason will continue to report to CFO Robert F. Hull Jr.

In her expanded role, Mason is taking on responsibility for financial planning and analysis, while she retains responsibility for the investor relations and treasury functions. Mason has nearly 20 years of experience in accounting and corporate finance across various industries, including technology, manufacturing, banking and retail.  

Charlotte, N.C. – Family-owned Belk Inc., which hired Goldman Sachs in April to explore “strategic alternatives,” may have landed on a high-end shopping list. According to Reuters, New York-based equity firm Sycamore Partners may be considering bidding $3 billion to $3.5 billion for Belk.

Belk operates about 300 stores and averages about $4 billion in annual sales. In the first quarter of fiscal 2015, Belk reported earnings of $21.8 million and sales of $958 million, both of which were year-over-year improvements.

Marbles: The Brain Store has chosen one of the country's smartest cities for its next brick-and-mortar location.

The company plans to open a new store in the Washington, D.C., area at National Harbor, the waterfront shopping and entertainment district on the Potomac River.

The new location is the third Marbles store to open this summer. Marbles also launched in Times Square in New York City and Myrtle Beach, S.C., marking its first location in the southern region.

Dallas – A retailer’s social media activity has a greater impact on shoppers than the company’s website.

That’s one of the findings of the Digital Shopping Tool Impact Study 2015 from marketing technology provider Epsilon. The platform shoppers cite as most influential to their shopping decisions is Facebook, although Pinterest and Google+ are strong contenders.  

Lowe's says it is making an investment in its long-term financial strategy with its latest move on its finance team.

A harried mother in the baking aisle can’t find lemongrass spice. A teenager in the junior department can’t decide which T-shirt to buy. A family in sporting goods is disappointed that the tent for their camping trip appears to be out of stock.

American Apparel Inc. is launching a restructuring plan aimed at cutting costs as the retailer looks to turn around its struggling business.

The retailer said it would be closing stores, cutting jobs and unveil a new fall line.