News

New York -- Omnichannel retailer Century Martial Arts will share insights on how it leverages business intelligence to better monitor and engage with customers during a Chain Store Age webcast on Tuesday, September 23, at 2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. PDT). Sponsored by Microsoft Dynamics, the presentation will take BI from buzz word to a “getting down to business” strategy and discuss how to elevate reporting to real intelligence – and actionable insight.

New York – Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that media reports indicate could be worth as much as $24.3 billion, making it the biggest U.S. initial public offering ever.

According to Bloomberg, Alibaba is seeking a valuation as high as $162.7 million, in the upper end of the proposed price range and higher than that of any other public Internet company in the U.S. except Google and Facebook.

J.C. Penney is launching a new online sports store that will be powered by Fanatics, an online retailer of officially licensed sports merchandise.

Fanatics operates an e-commerce platform for hundreds of collegiate and professional sports teams, leagues and media sites. Now, it will provide sports fans with a selection of team apparel and merchandise at JCPenney.com, offering more than 300,000 licensed products spanning all the major sports leagues.

Franklin, Tenn. - Worldwide POS hardware shipments showed a sharp increase in the first half of 2014. According to IHL Group's POS Vendor Data Service, which tracks POS shipments by vendors and retail segments worldwide, in the first six months of the year, Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) and North America showed by far the greatest growth in POS shipments.

Family Dollar has rejected the revised proposal made by Dollar General on Sept. 2 on the basis of antitrust regulatory considerations. The Dollar General offer may be financially superior, the dollar store operator noted, but it's not likely to pass muster with the Federal Trade Commission.
 

Target is expanding its TargetExpress format outside the Minneapolis area for the first time. The retailer plans to open two new stores in San Francisco’s financial district and Berkeley, California, in March 2015.

Brisbane, Calif. – Bebe Stores Inc. reported a preliminary net loss of $24.2 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2014, up from $20.8 million the second quarter of the prior fiscal year. The loss includes costs related to the discontinuation of Bebe’s 2b business, which was shut down July 5.

Net sales were $103.6 million, a decrease of 9% from $113.5 million. Same-store sales dropped 1.9%.

Jim Wiggett, CEO, remained optimistic in his comments about Bebe’s future:

Living Proof has promoted Grace Ray to CEO. Ray has served as chief marketing officer since 2011, and succeeds Jill Beraud, who is heading to Tiffany & Co. as EVP of global retail operations.

The company credits Ray with being instrumental in its growth in the past several years. The company said that Ray worked with the Living Proof team to deliver a portfolio of award-winning and game-changing products, increase the brand's awareness and leverage co-owner Jennifer Aniston in powerful marketing campaigns to drive double-digit sales growth.