Supply Chain & Merchandising

The woman who put the “T” in Tarjay is stepping down from her role as chief merchandising officer and adding some uncertainty about the retailer’s direction under the leadership of chairman and CEO Brian Cornell.

San Francisco - Instacart is utilizing Zebra's hosted Zatar Internet of Things (IoT) platform for cloud printing and device management of Zebra printers. This new solution allows Instacart to print labels at locations across the U.S. securely and accurately.

Instacart chose to use the Zatar IoT platform for its ability to connect to and control devices in third-party locations via an API. The solution connects Instacart's printers to the cloud and enables the organization to interact with, monitor and manage Zebra printers globally.

Union, N.J. – Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc. missed Wall Street expectations for profit and same-store sales during a not-so-comfy first quarter of 2015. Net earnings dropped 18% to $158.5 million from $187.1 million, with increased selling, general and administrative (SG&A) and interest expenses offsetting higher gross profit.

Net sales totaled $2.74 billion, an increase of 3% from $2.66 billion. Same-store sales increased by 2.2%, including the negative impact of Canadian currency fluctuation.

London – U.K. retailers Harrods, Browns, Space NK Apothecary, The Dune Group, Aspinal of London, Trunki, Brand Outlet, Austin Reed, Viyella, CC and Soletrader have all signed up to Borderfree’s global e-commerce platform.

New York – Barnes & Noble Inc. beat Wall Street expectations, sharply reducing its loss even as sales fell.

The bookseller reported a net loss of $19.42 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, down from a loss of $36.7 million in the year-ago period. Reductions in selling, general and administrative (SG&A) and interest expenses, as well as lower depreciation and amortization, drove the decline in net loss.

Online pricing intelligence provider 360pi compared Amazon.com and Walmart.com prices earlier this year in a dynamic pricing study and discovered Walmart changed its prices more often than Amazon.

The company looked at Amazon.com and Walmart.com prices comparing a basket of grocery pantry/household items spanning a number of CPG brands with a non-grocery basket (such as toys, electronics and tools) shopped on Amazon.com and Walmart.com between April 9 and June 9, 2015.

Three key finding from the report were:

New York -- The world’s largest online retailer will soon be driving around and selling product out of a truck — a truck that looks like a giant Amazon package.

Menlo Park, Calif. - Same-day delivery company Deliv has acquired WeDeliver, a Chicago-based delivery service that powers same-day delivery for local retailers. Launched in early 2013, WeDeliver provides same-day delivery services for more than 200 retailers in the Chicago area