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Growth opportunities in new geographies prompted Kroger to realign its organizational structure and place four executive in new roles.

Just two days after reporting strong first quarter results, the nation’s second largest food retailer established two new supermarket divisions in Nashville and Louisville.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — The Craftsman brand spent Father's Day weekend in Philadelphia with hard core golf fans and putt-putt enthusiasts at the Craftsman Father's Day Miniature Golf Classic.

Attendees were invited to play a free round on the one-of-a-kind miniature golf course specially built by the Craftsman brand and designed by former professional golfer and analyst Gary McCord, featuring Craftsman tools at every hole.  

A new brand identity now adorns the GSI Commerce business eBay acquired two years ago for $2.4 billion.

Menlo Park, Calif. -- Facebook on Thursday announced the launch of a video feature for its photo-sharing app, Instagram. The new feature, which allows users to share video clips lasting up to 15 seconds, is seen as a direct shot at Twitter, which acquired short video start-up Vine last year.

Similar to photos, the Instagram videos will show up on a user's profile and will be available immediately on both Apple’s iOs platform and Google’s Android devices.

Fort Worth, Texas -- Pier 1 Imports announced a 14% jump in fiscal first-quarter earnings on Thursday and upgraded its full-year guidance.

The company reported net income of $20.3 million for the first quarter ended June 1, compared to $17.8 million for the year ago period.

Total sales were $395 million, a 9.3% increase from $361 million in the prior year quarter. Same-store sales rose 5.9% on stronger store traffic and higher average tickets.

By Bill Leber, Swisslog

E-commerce is fundamentally changing the nature of the retail supply chain. As online shopping continues to compete with and, in many instances, overtake brick-and-mortar retail, traditional retailers are looking for more and more ways to expand their multichannel operations.

By Ben Anderson and Luge Pravda  

With an estimated 20 new TLDs (Top Level Domains, which is the suffix to the right of the dot) being launched on a weekly basis from August 2013, it’s time for retail brand owners to stop and think about their domain strategy once again.

Cincinnati -- The Kroger Company reported better-than-expected net income of $481 million during the first quarter of this year, up nearly 10% from $439 million in the first quarter of 2012. The company also raised its forecast for annual earnings.

Total sales increased 3.4% from $29.1 billion to $30 billion and a 3.3% increase in same-store sales beat analyst projections of a 2.8% increase.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. -- Kohl’s is easing the continuous integration (CI) process for its omni-channel initiatives with the implementation of the Qubell Adaptive PaaS solution. Available as a hosted platform, Adaptive PaaS provides Kohl’s with continuous application deployment, continuous testing and environment management. Specific tasks Kohl’s has executed using Adaptive PaaS include automating the front end of its development process, integrating with various technology stacks and providing developers with near-real-time feedback on their work.

Mountain View, Calif. – In a new report, “The Four Mobile Traps,” usability testing service firm UserTesting.com identifies four common mistakes retailers make when attempting to perform mobile commerce. Following is a brief summary of each “trap:”