News

Pleasanton, Calif. - Blackhawk Network Inc., a prepaid and payments network, has expanded its digital services platform. The digital services platform is now enabled with exchange services, which allows users to instantly sell their retail, restaurant and a variety of other brands' gift cards.  

E-commerce home furnishings company Wayfair continues to lose money, but not as much as analysts had expected.

The company announced it posted a loss of 18 cents per share in the fourth quarter, below the 28-cent loss analysts forecasted. Wayfair generated $1.3 billion in net revenue last year, up 44% over 2013. Sales in its direct-retail segment, which consists of sales from five key brands, surged to $347 million as the number of active customers increased by 54%.

Washington, D.C. -- Consumers are opening up their pocketbooks for St. Patrick’s Day, according to the National Retail Federation’s St. Patrick’s Day Spending Survey.

The survey, conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics, finds that nearly 127 million Americans are planning to celebrate the traditional Irish holiday and will spend an average of $36.52 on green garb, festive food and more, compared to $35.78 last year.

Improved customer service programs and a better store experience helped regional grocery chain Weis Markets post a jump in same store sales for the fourth quarter.

The Sunbury, Pa.-based food retailer reported that its fourth quarter same store sales increased 3.5%, while its net sales increased 4% to $713.8 million. During the 13-week period ending Dec. 27, the company's earnings per share totaled 51 cents compared to 59 cents for the same period in 2013. The company's fourth quarter net income declined 11.6% to $13.9 million.

New York -- Robert Nardelli, the former chairman and CEO of The Home Depot and Chrysler, is joining Pep Boys.

Nardelli has been appointed to Pep Boys’ board of directors, bringing the current size of the board to nine directors.

Irving, Texas – The Michaels Companies Inc. has launched online arts and crafts classes taught by instructors and industry experts through an exclusive partnership with Creativebug, a subscription-based provider of online DIY instruction. Accessible anytime, anywhere, the video classes provide the novice crafter with basic techniques, such as beginning calligraphy and paper crafting, while also teaching more advanced skills and projects.

Sunbury, Pa. – Decreasing pretax income helped reduce net income at Weis Markets Inc. 12% to $13.9 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 from $15.7 million in the year-ago period. Net sales rose 4% to $713.8 million from $686.4 million, while same-store sales increased 3.5%.

The company attributed its sales increases to its pricing programs, which were fully implemented in the first quarter. Its results also benefited from strong sales increases in pharmacy, HBC and its fresh departments.

Hangzhou, China - Aliyun, Alibaba’s cloud computing business, is opening its first overseas data center, in California’s Silicon Valley, in what seems to be a competitive move into the space currently dominated by Amazon Web Services. The center will initially target Chinese enterprises based in the United States with the plan to gradually expand its products and services to international clients in the second half of this year.