News

Wayfair Inc. has appointed Chad Ghosn VP of IT infrastructure and security.

Ghosn will oversee a large engineering team that is responsible for scaling Wayfair’s infrastructure system to meet customer demands and company needs. Before joining the online home furnishings retailer, Ghosn led the infrastructure team at Expedia Inc.

Prior to his role at Expedia, Ghosn spent more than a decade in various infrastructure leadership positions at Dell Inc. Previously, he led network operations for Kaiser Permanente.

Amazon Marketplace sellers may want to run a little leaner this holiday season.

According to Re/Code, Amazon has notified merchants its third-party Marketplace platform will raise its warehouse storage fees during November and December 2016. The e-tail giant experienced profit-damaging storage space shortages during the 2015 holiday season and is trying to avoid a repeat of the problem.
 

Retail mergers have long been subject to scrutiny by the antitrust authorities at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). But perhaps no two retail chains have found themselves more often in the FTC’s cross-hairs than the two largest office supply providers in the United States, Staples and Office Depot.   
     

Chain Store Age’s annual search for 10 retail real estate stars under the age of 40 years resulted in this: Ten youthful, creative, hard-charging industry executives.

Some are retailers, others are brokers or from shopping center companies. Three are women. One is under the age of 30. There’s a single Canadian in the bunch. Two work for CBRE. Each has studied the business, sought out mentors, and researched and taken on the issues of the day.

The recent Momentum 2016 conference held by Manhattan Associates in Orlando, Florida, was a great opportunity to catch up on the latest developments in supply chain solutions and strategies.   Here are three especially important retail supply chain trends uncovered and explained at the event:   Supply chain is key to omnichannel

A new guest service counter, interactive displays, new food vendors and LED track and valance lighting are just a few of the updates being tested in 25 Target stores in the Los Angeles area.   The initiative, called LA25, features different enhancements Target has been testing across stores and puts them all together to see how they impact stores and the customer experience.    

Minted, the online marketplace for crowdsourced stationery, art and home decor from independent artists, has opened its first brick-and-mortar store.   The store, a pop-up in San Francisco’s Union Square shopping district, is called Minted Local. Open through October 2016, it will highlight the work of regional California artists, including original art and one-of-a-kind decorative items for the first time in Minted’s history.  

Big and tall men continued to spend in the first quarter, bucking slow apparel sales throughout the rest of the industry.   Destination XL Group Inc. posted revenue of $107.9 million in the quarter, up 3.3% from $104.4 million in the year-ago period. Total same-store sales rose 2%.  

One of the most successful formats in the history of retailing is about to get a makeover.        Apple Inc. unveiled its vision for the future of its retail empire, opening a two-level flagship in San Francisco with new design flourishes and service elements that will be rolled out to Apple stores worldwide.     

Fabulous Freddy’s, an eight-unit retail chain headquartered in Las Vegas, provides customers with a little bit of everything.   “We’re a full-service car wash, express lube operation, gas station and convenience store,” said Jeff Warwick, VP and CFO of Fabulous Freddy’s, during an interview with Chain Store Age. “We’re always exploring opportunities to lease store space to franchises or operate in-store franchises ourselves.”