Sales & Marketing

Walmart’s share price will be under pressure in the coming years as a holding company created decades ago by the Walton family to control their ownership of the company prepares to unload as much as 6% of Walmart’s outstanding shares.

Arlington, Va. – The Retail Industry Leaders Association has released the 2015 Retail Sustainability Management Maturity Matrix, a tool for retail sustainability executives to identify possible pathways to strong environmental sustainability programs. The Matrix, co-developed by RILA and Deloitte Consulting LLP, represents the collective knowledge of many industry experts as to leading sustainability management practices.

Beijing, China – Chinese direct sales company JD.com Inc. is launching JD Worldwide, its new cross-border e-commerce platform that directly challenges Alibaba. JD Worldwide provides Chinese consumers with authentic imported products.

In a coup over Alibaba, JD.com is also launching of "Best of EBay Deals," a pilot program on the new platform in partnership with EBay. EBay’s channel on JD Worldwide will showcase a variety of merchandise from select EBay sellers in the U.S.

Indianapolis – Lids Sports Group is upgrading to a new Oracle Retail POS solution that will simplify administration and the user experience for the more than 50 different POS screen and receipt configurations for the retailer’s partner brands. These include major college and pro teams, as well as the nearly 200 Locker Room-branded stores in Macy’s locations.

Carlisle, Pa. -- Giant Food Stores and Martin’s Food Markets said they will begin paying all non-union workers a minimum of $9 a hour beginning in June.

The operator of 200 stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia said the move was part of the company’s commitment to provide competitive wages.

"Our associates are the foundation of our success, and we have always believed in paying competitive wages to attract the best talent," said Tom Lenkevich, Giant/Martin’s president.

Membership-based online retailer Jet is partnering with QVC parent company Liberty Interactive’s marketing and virtual inventory solutions provider CommerceHub to help retailers and brand capitalize on the soon-to-launch Jet e-commerce platform.

Denver - The Running Specialty Group, a division of The Finish Line Inc., is entering a strategic agreement with Pear Sports, a mobile fitness and training content platform, for the launch of the RSG training channel, an interactive training platform and tracking tool which will integrate with the retailer’s store based training programs nationwide.

Youngstown, Ohio -- The Picture People will open new studios in four Cafaro malls, according to the Youngstown, Ohio-based mall owner. The studios, which range in size from 1,800 sq. ft. to 2,700 sq. ft., will open by late May in Eastwood Mall (Niles, Ohio), Governor’s Square Mall (Clarksville, Tennessee), Huntington Mall (Barboursville, West Virginia) and Kentucky Oaks Mall (Paducah, Kentucky). In each case, this will be the first location for The Picture People in those respective states.