Omnichannel

King of Prussia, Pa. – EBay Enterprise, an EBay Inc. company, has selected IBM as a hybrid cloud platform to enhance its Magento Hosting Partner ecosystem.

This agreement is designed to expand global infrastructure options for Magento's more than 240,000 retail users by giving them access to the IBM SoftLayer infrastructure.

Kohl’s rolled out two omnichannel campaigns in January underscoring the company’s stated focus on giving back to the community.

The company says it will award $400,000 in scholarships and prizes to more than 2,500 students who have made a positive impact on their communities. Nominations for kids ages 6 to 18 will be accepted until March 13 at kohlskids.com and in stores.

New York -- In a new type of retail disruption, London’s must buzzed-about department store, Selfridges, plans to remove the men’s and women’s departments on the three floors of its Oxford Street flagship from mid- March to the end of April, replacing them with unisex or gender-neutral shops.  
 

It may be hard to believe (considering its financial troubles), but Sears was the most popular U.S. department store on Facebook during the 2014 holiday shopping season, according to a new study. 

The data also show that Walmart.com was the most popular mass merchant store site.

New York -- Amazon reported higher-than-expected profit for its fourth quarter, fueled by growth of its Prime memberships and holiday shoppers, even as its sales came in below forecasts. It’s a reverse for the e-commerce giant, which has typically sacrificed profits for rapidly-growing sales.

For the fourth quarter, net income totaled $214 million, down from $239 million in the year-ago period, but better than analysts had expected. Sales rose 15% to $29.3 billion, lower than the expected $29.7 billion.

While the monetary value of Bitcoin has had its ups and downs (and will likely continue to in the near future), the technological value and the transactional advantages of using the digital currency remain reliable and increasingly promising.

Customers who are fans of the wildly popular video game Evolve will love GameStop’s new promotions, both online and in-store.

The video game retailer will be conducting consumer engagement quizzes in-store and online that allow fans to identify the best Evolve hunters or monsters based on their personal play style. Fans who share their results on social media will be eligible to win GameStop gift cards.

Customers can pre-order Evolve and sign up for the promotions in-store or online.

Columbus, Ohio - DSW Inc. is shifting titles and responsibilities to its executive ranks, with all changes effective Feb. 2. Carrie McDermott, currently executive VP, sales and operations, will be appointed executive VP and COO.  

In addition, Bill Jordan, currently executive VP and general counsel, will be appointed executive VP and chief administrative officer, adding IT to his portfolio of responsibilities.