News

eBay Enterprise has released the latest versions of Magento Enterprise Edition (version 1.14) and Community Edition (version 1.9). Both editions include a new responsive reference design theme, Bill Me Later as a payment option and PayPal Express Checkout improvements.

Magento Enterprise Edition will also include faster search indexing. The upgrades make it easier and less expensive for retailers to provide seamless mobile experiences and provide new payment options for customers, improving conversion rates and sales.

Back in September, Pinterest unveiled plans to experiment with Promoted Pins. Now, the social media site is working with a small group of brands in the U.S. to roll out a paid test in its search and category feeds.

“These brands will help us test Promoted Pins to make sure they’re tasteful, transparent, relevant and improved based on your feedback,” said product manager Julie Black, adding, “so that Pinterest continues to be a great experience for everyone.”

Dallas -- J.C. Penney topped expectations for the first quarter, reporting a 6.2% increase in same-store sales that easily topped views. Revenue for the quarter, which ended May 3, rose to $2.80 billion, above the $2.71 billion analysts expected, up from $2.64 billion in the year-ago period.  

It was the second consecutive month of same-store sales gains for Penney, and the retailer said sales improved sequentially each month within the quarter.

Penney lost $352 million for the quarter, not as much as analysts expected.

Dallas -- Zale Corp. on Thursday restated its support for Signet Jewelers Ltd.'s $1 billion acquisition offer, urging shareholders to support the deal despite opposition from a large investor. The deal, under which Zale stockholders would receive $21.00 per share in cash, has been unanimously approved by the Zale board of directors.

Zale’s investor TIG Advisors LLC has called the deal "grossly unfair," saying the jewelry retailers should be able to get $28.60 a share in cash and stock.  

By Evan Gold, VP of client services, Planalytics

The winter of 2014 brought record cold and snow throughout North America and its impact on business and consumer spending were widespread and significant. How impactful was it? Well, for the S&P 500 companies, the word “weather” was mentioned in almost 200 earnings calls from January through March, which is a 81% increase compared to last year.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. -- Kohl’s Corp. missed Wall Street expectations for profits, revenue and same-store sales during a difficult first quarter. Net income, which had been expected to rise slightly, fell 15% to $125 million, from $147 million.

In addition, net sales declined 3% to $4.07 billion from $4.2 billion, while analysts had expected them to rise to $4.22 billion. Same-store sales, also expected to increase, fell 3.4%.

Dallas – DGSE Companies Inc. swung to a net loss of $523,000 from a net profit of $300,000 in first quarter 2014. The retailer cited significant decreases in both bullion and scrap sales resulting from a drop in gold prices as affecting its performance, which included a 32% drop in revenue to $19.9 million from $29.2 million.

DSGE has closed 23 stores since February 2014 and expects $3.7 million in non-recurring charges in 2014 as part of discontinued operations.

London – U.K. swimwear and resort retailer Orlebar Brown has deployed NetSuite OneWorld to support its growth and continued global expansion. The company is leveraging NetSuite OneWorld's capabilities for financial consolidation, tax compliance support, and multi-currency and multi-language support point-of-sale (POS), for its Notting Hill store in London, as well as inventory management, order management and warehouse management to run its core mission-critical business processes.

Merrillville, Ind. – Consumer buying club franchisor DrectBuy and eInfochips are collaborating for a business intelligence (BI) collaboration solution that integrates data from warehouse clubs and the DirectBuy e-commerce portal. The solution drives consumer behavior with an enhanced shopping experience, and also enables analytics for data-driven decision making.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Endicia, a provider of e-commerce shipping technology has added an Amazon integration to its shipping software's capabilities. The solution, which allows users to import orders and post-back tracking information, is designed to increase shipping efficiency.