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Seattle -- Nordstrom plans to open a full-line store in Minnetonka, Minn., at Ridgedale Center, which is owned by General Growth Properties.

The store will be approximately 138,000 sq. ft. and will open in fall 2015. It will be Nordstrom's second full-line store in Minnesota.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Lowe’s will unveil the next wave of products and services for Iris, its cloud-based smart home solution, at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show.

Iris enables homeowners to monitor and control their homes from anywhere via smart phone, tablet or computer with a free basic level of service. Lowe’s will showcase more than 15 new Iris devices and services developed since the smart home solution’s launch in 2012 at the show.

BRISBANE, Calif. — Steve Birkhold was named CEO at Bebe on the same day that the company reported a worse than expected second quarter loss and a 10.5% comp decline.

Birkhold, who previously served as president and CEO at Lacoste, will be tasked with leading a turnaround at the struggling specialty retailer.

Online holiday season sales grew 14% to $42.3 billion, a little short of comScore’s pre-season forecast.

The online measurement firm originally projected that online sales during the November and December period would increase 16% to $43.4 billion. However, after a strong start online sales fizzled a bit in early December and never quite regained enough momentum to achieve the firm’s earlier target.

SEATTLE — Amazon contends that 2012 was a record-breaking holiday season for businesses selling on its popular online Webstore platform.

Amazon reports that more than two million third-party sellers worldwide experienced record holiday growth, and unit growth solely from sellers in the U.S. increased more than 40% year-over-year. For the year, sellers on Amazon sold hundreds of millions of units worth tens of billions of dollars worldwide, according to the company, which did not provide an actual sales figure.

SEATTLE — Nordstrom plans to open another new Rack store this spring in Maine as the number of off price locations now exceeds the company’s full price stores.

The approximately 30,000-sq.-ft. store at Maine Crossing Shopping Center will be its first location in the state, and is scheduled to open this spring.

Seattle -- Nordstrom announced plans to open a Nordstrom Rack in South Portland, Maine.

The approximately 30,000-sq.-ft. store is scheduled to open this spring at Maine Crossing Shopping Center and will be the retailer's first location in the state. It will occupy the former Old Navy space. 

WATSONVILLE, Calif. — EVP and president of Nordstrom Direct Jamie Nordstrom has joined West Marine's board of directors. Nordstrom also was appointed as the fourth member of West Marine's governance and compensation committee.

His board and committee service is expected to begin on the first meeting scheduled in 2013, most likely in March, and Nordstrom, like all the other directors, will stand for re-election to the board at West Marine's 2013 annual meeting of stockholders.