News

The CEO of Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. pledged to get the company back on track after a flooring scandal led to another decline in revenue for the company.

Minneapolis -- Target wants to keep things simple.

The retailer, which has been moving to simplify its operations, is now taking a similar approach to its store identity. Starting in October, Target will begin the process of rebranding all of its CityTarget and TargetExpress stores as “Target.”

New York -- Petco Animal Supplies may be headed for an initial public offering or sale.

The retailer has selected Goldman Sachs Group to help with an IPO or sale that could value the pet supplies retailer between $4 billion and $5 billion, including debt, Reuters reported.

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New York -- A big acquisition of a luxury shoe brand helped Coach top analysts’ fourth quarter earnings forecasts even as its sales and income fell.

Coach’s fourth-quarter net income plunged 84.4% to $11.7 million, down from $75.2 in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time charges, Coach said its net income came in at $85 million, or 31 cents per share, beating the analyst consensus by two cents.

Coach said Stuart Weitzman, which it acquired earlier this year, helped to boost its earnings.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot is accelerating its previously announced plan to close at least 400 stores as the retailer awaits its acquisition by Staples.

After shuttering a greater than expected 99 stores in the second quarter, Office Depot boosted its 2015 store closing target to 175 locations, with another 60 due to close in 2016. The closings are on top of 153 closings throughout 2014, including 108 stores in the fourth quarter of last year.

Hangzhou, China – Alibaba Holding Group Inc. is tapping a former longtime partner at Goldman Sachs to oversee the online giant’s international growth.

Michael Evans, who is also a member of the Alibaba board, has been named president of Alibaba Group, effective immediately.

Denver – Whatever the cool kids (and their families) are doing this summer, back-to-school shopping does not appear to be on the agenda.

An ongoing shopper behavior study conducted by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research shows that retailers will continue to see the number of back-to-school shoppers in their stores drop.

In 2014, the data showed 36% of shoppers would not be shopping back-to-school, and this year the study is showing a 7% increase in those not shopping for back-to-school.

Boston -- Online licensed-sports apparel retailer Fanatics has taken website testing and optimization to a whole new level.

Fanatics is using SiteSpect’s Origin Experiments to test more than site aesthetics, such as headlines and font color. The solution empowers Fanatics to execute a broad range of tests on new site features and functionality, such as on-site search and checkout flow.

Irvine, Calif. -- Billabong International has selected a retail suite from JustEnough’s retail suite of solutions to help transform its planning and replenishment processes across all its brands worldwide.

Green Bay, Wis. – Shopko Stores is looking more closely into how it uses store space. It’s also looking more deeply into customer’s market baskets.

The retailer has renewed its license of APT’s Test & Learn and Market Basket Analyzer software for another three years.