News

Instacart is taking a step beyond partnering with specific retailers to provide same-day grocery deliveries.

The online delivery platform is partnering with food-focused social network Allrecipes to deliver fresh ingredients from Allrecipes’ highest-rated, most popular recipes on-demand. With the click of a button, consumers can add all necessary ingredients from Allrecipes meals and have them delivered straight to their doorstep in as little as one hour.

In a relatively short space of time, the retail industry has been turned on its head. Not that long ago, retailers would decide which goods they would stock, how much they would price each item, and which locations would sell which goods. Today, consumers are calling the shots. The smartphone has become like a store in a pocket and consumers use them to quickly find the exact item they want and compare prices to get the best deal. Depending on what is more convenient for them, they can arrange for home delivery or click-and-collect.

If you were to read an article about leaders in savvy energy and sustainability management programs and initiatives, who do you think that would be? Government? Manufacturing? Actually, it’s the retail industry, which has been a leader in energy efficiency investments since 2008.

Whole Foods Market has made a minority investment in a fast-growing California restaurant chain, according to Nation's Restaurant News.

As part of the deal, Whole Foods plans to test the opening of Mendocino Farms outlets in select market locations, according to the publication.

Irvine Company is making history as the first major real estate company in the world to plan portfolio-wide use of energy storage.

The Irvine Company on Monday announced an initiative to become the world's first major real estate company to create a fleet of hybrid-electric buildings powered by state-of-the-art energy storage systems from Tesla Energy.

The company recently signed a memorandum of understanding for the ground-breaking environmental initiative with San Francisco-based Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS).

Restoration Hardware has opened a new format that redefines the retail experience and has CEO Gary Friedman calling it the company’s finest work to date.

The retailer says its new brand,  RH Modern, aims to offer one of the most fully-integrated assortments of modern furnishings, lighting and décor under one brand in the world. The multi-channel business  debuts with its own 540-page magazine-catalog hybrid, a dedicated website, and a significant retail presence, including a standalone RH Modern store.

Stadium Goods, an unusual new retail consignment concept dedicated to premium sneakers, launched on Monday with a multichannel format that includes a website and a flagship in New York City’s Soho neighborhood.

Both channels specialize in limited and special edition sneakers, and the type of exclusive, hard-to-find styles that sneaker enthusiasts (“sneakerheads”) are willing to shell out thousands of dollars for.

Social commerce is finally here.

Various retailers and social media platforms have been experimenting with letting consumers make purchases directly from social networks for some time. But in the past few weeks a flurry of new and expanded social commerce options have been introduced.