Supply Chain & Merchandising

Amazon may be looking to grab a piece of the B2B pie from retailers such as Staples by launching an Amazon Business marketplace stocked with hundreds of millions of business products.

The e-commerce giant says Amazon Business customers will also benefit from free two-day shipping on tens of millions of eligible items, multi-user business accounts, approval workflow, payment solutions, tax exemptions, dedicated customer support and much more.

Plano, Texas – Rent-A-Center Inc. reported stable profit during the first quarter of fiscal 2015. The retailer’s net income totaled $27.3 million, up 1% from $27.26 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Consolidated total revenues climbed 6% to $877.64 million, from $828.47 million. Same-store sales rose 8%.

Cost-conscious consumers are continuing to seek out bargains at Supervalu's stores, prompting the company's profit to soar 50% in the fourth quarter.

Carle Place, N.Y. – Net loss at 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. grew to $10.81 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2015 from $1.74 million in the same quarter the prior year. Higher operating expenses in areas including marketing and sales and technology and development helped boost net loss.

Winter storms and lower sales of its Elfa closet system led to decreased profit for the Container Store in the fourth quarter.

Melbourne, Australia – Vertical Australian luggage retailer Crumpler has selected Raymark's cloud-based store management software suite for deployment in its stores worldwide. The software initiative is aimed at supporting Crumpler's international growth, improving the omnichannel customer experience and modernizing IT operations.

San Diego - After a successful pilot in Boston and San Francisco, Petco is expanding its partnership with Instacart. Beginning April 28, customers in 14 metro areas served by Instacart can order from Petco stores and have everything delivered in as little as one hour.

Instacart currently serves 15 metro areas: Atlanta, Austin, Boulder, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland (OR), San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The company plans to add several more cities before the end of 2015.

Leading specialty retailer Petco has expanded home delivery with Instacart.