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Experts and regular folks alike are puzzled by the uproar over Starbucks’ holiday cup design, the Associated Press reported. Even New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan sounded a curious note, saying "I don't think it's like Starbucks had the Christmas crib on their cups to begin with.” [Associated Press]

Sears is going the private, members-only route this Black Friday in an effort to drive traffic to its stores.

For the first time ever, Sears will open all of its stores to select Shop Your Way members for a private night of shopping for many of its Thanksgiving/Black Friday doorbusters four days early. Sears will hold its "Members Private Night" in all stores on Nov. 22 from 6-9 p.m. While access to the event is by email or text invitation only, members can text the word "EXCLUSIVE" to 73277 to receive an invitation, while supplies last.

While all the major retailers will be offering deals and discounts on Black Friday weekend, Dick's Sporting Goods plans to woo shoppers with an exciting social media promotion.

Musicians are notoriously individualistic people, and specialty instrument retailer Guitar Center is launching a redesigned website with this user base in mind.

Westlake Village, California-based, 270-store Guitar Center has launched a new redesigned website with a more seamless omnichannel user interface. Based on the current Oracle Commerce platform, the redesign is the result of a two-year initiative that involved customer insight and user experience teams, both of whom worked together with end-users and consultants.

Those in the know say nobody walks in Los Angeles, and Amazon.com wants to make sure Los Angeles residents don’t have to move their legs to get restaurant food.

Amazon’s Prime Now one-hour delivery service has expanded in Los Angeles to include delivery from local restaurants. Using the Prime Now mobile app, Prime members in Los Angeles can view participating restaurants, browse menus, place orders, track the status of their delivery, and watch delivery driver progress in real time.

Grocery e-commerce has thus far mostly been the province of large vertical players like Kroger, mass merchandisers like Target and Wal-Mart, and online platforms like Amazon and Instacart.

However, a successful regional grocer is throwing its Stetson in the grocery e-commerce ring. Texas-based H-E-B, one of the nation's largest regional grocery retailers with more than 370 stores in Texas and Mexico, is making 50,000 food, drugstore and general merchandise products available to purchase and ship at its corporate site.

The “digital revolution” has turned the traditional retail marketplace upside down. Consumer expectations continue to rise and the Internet has broken down borders and created a global marketplace, dramatically increasing competition.

When your retail operation is already the size of a small city and you’re planning growth, maintaining communications is a critical task.

Bloomington, Minnesota-based Mall of America, which spans four levels and 5.5 million-sq.-ft. of retail space (plus parking ramps, service corridors, etc.) and is seeking to expand, faces that exact situation. The mall, home to 520 stores, more than 50 restaurants, an indoor theme park and other attractions, is switching from an analog communications system to the Motorola Solutions Mototrbo digital two-way radio system.

PayPal Inc. is continuing its evolution from serving as the digital payment platform for former parent company eBay Inc.

Since its July split from eBay, new PayPal initiatives have included serving as a payment option for a number of new retail partners, reversing a policy that previously excluded U.S.-based online gambling sites from accepting PayPal, and expanding a global free returns service in the U.S.

Image-based e-commerce is becoming more popular on the consumer side, and now Shopify is making the retailer side more visually based.

The new Sello mobile app from e-commerce platform Shopify allows retailers to create a free online store by taking and posting photos of the products they want to sell, and then adding price and a brief description. No coding is involved.
Retailers can also use Sello to promote and sell products via platforms such as social media, email and SMS text. The only charges are fees from payment processors.