Omnichannel

Sidney, Neb. -- Cabela's Inc. saw profit rise 6.9% to $27.5 million in the first quarter, topping Wall Street expectations. Revenue of $827.1 million, a 14% increase, also exceeded Street forecasts.

By segment, retail store revenue increased 18.9% to $524.4 million; direct revenue decreased 3.3% to $173.5 million; and Financial Services revenue increased 24.7% to $122.9 million.

During the period, consolidated same-store sales decreased 1.3%.

Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores is embracing its branding as “America’s Appliance Experts” with a refresh of seven stores in Arizona, among other states.

The store refresh includes a new product assortment, redesigned merchandising, new fixtures & signage, and comprehensive employee training, among other changes.

The new focus on health and wellness merchandise at Kohl’s gets a big boost this week with the addition of an exclusive Gaiam women’s apparel collection.

The retailer has been greatly expanding its assortment of active lifestyle and wellness offerings through brand launches, partnerships and unique social integrations that further the company’s commitment to active and well lifestyles promoted under the Make Your Move initiative launched earlier this year.

Dallas – Waiting in line is probably the least appetizing part of the dining out experience. That is why Chili’s Grill &Bar has selected the NoWait mobile network to power its new mobile waitlisting app.

Rolling out nationwide in summer 2015, NoWait enables guests to search local Chili's restaurants, understand the wait time to be seated and add their names remotely to a restaurant's real-time seating list. Customers will also be able to track their place in line and show up when their table is scheduled to be ready.

HSN Inc. has appointed a new chief marketing officer to drive growth for the $3.6 billion multichannel retailer. 

The company named John Aylward as executive VP and chief marketing officer for HSN.

Seattle - While Amazon is winning the battle for smartphone shoppers in America, it has yet to achieve the same dominance in at least 10 other countries internationally. This is the key finding of a monthly report from Informate Mobile Intelligence that tracked and measured consumer use of smartphones in 12 countries during February 2015.

The new report reveals shopping apps as having the highest penetration in the U.S. at 60%, followed by India at 46%. The other 10 countries measured, by comparison, only had a median reach of about 18%.

San Jose, Calif. – eBay Inc. topped Wall Street expectations for both profit and revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. Growth in transactions and efforts to control expenses helped produce net income of $626 million, compared to a net loss of $2.33 billion the same quarter a year earlier.

Charlotte, N.C. -- Shoppers in the United States are in no hurry to buy a wearable device, according to a survey by Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group, a business and technology consulting firm exclusively focused on the financial services industry. The findings suggest that future adoption of the technology will be driven by attractiveness, alerts and payments functionality.