Retail News

Following the deadly shootings over the weekend in El Paso and Dayton Ohio, a pair of Walmart employees have joined a number of gun control advocates, opposing Walmart’s sale of guns and ammunition. They have urged other employees to join in their protest.

As many stores reconsider their financial holdings and how to make a space in the e-commerce dominated market, several have chosen to close stores. After Walgreens announced 200 U.S. location store closures, Kmart and Sears will add 26 more to the growing list of 7,000-plus store closures for 2019.

As many retailers have shuttered their stores, filed for bankruptcy or reduced its retail footprint, analysts at Coresight Research predict that the store closure number could reach more than 12,000 before 2019 is over. As of Aug. 2, there’s been 27 percent more store closures in 2019 than in 2018, according to USA Today.

Walking through any brick and mortar store, or browsing through any online store these days it's hard not to notice all the back-to-school sales that are currently going on. It is now one of those various times throughout the year that retailers put forth their best deals in an attempt to woo shoppers during this end-of-the-summer period when parents are shopping for the new school year for everything from clothing to school supplies.

Following a statement in which Walmart said it would not be making any changes to its policy of selling firearms and ammunition after the shootings in El Paso and Southhaven, the retailer has been facing increased pressure to do exactly that. Many people, including gun safety advocates and everyday shoppers, are very disgruntled with the store’s decision to remove violent video game displays and videos, but not actual guns and ammo.

The tragic shootings of last weekend made a profound impact on the country, raising many questions, giving rise to many fears, and reigniting the controversy regarding video games and their link to acts of violence. While the research and statistics claim otherwise, many still cast the blame on video games when it comes to mass shootings; even when the shooters themselves claim completely different motives.

As of right now, Avengers: Endgame is the biggest movie of the century. Making $2.7 billion at the global box office, which makes it the second highest grossing movie ever. That being the case, it isn’t really a surprise that hardcore Marvel fans may want to own a physical copy of the film. As of August 13th, the movie will be available to buy in both physical and digital formats.

This year has been rough on a great many retailers. Over 7,000 stores in the US are slated to be shut down this year, which is more than all the stores closed down in 2018. In fact, we’re well on our way to the greatest number of annual closings ever.

The past few years haven’t been kind to many department stores. Retailers across the country are floundering, their stocks cratering as they fail to adapt to the times. Sears is essentially gone, J.C. Penney is well on its way to the same fate, and other department stores, like Macy’s and Kohl’s are barely any better off. And yet, through all of that, Walmart and Target are actually growing. The gap between retailers struggling with a buildup of inventory before the holidays and those that are thriving is widening every day.

Ever since Amazon made online retail the ultimate battleground for modern stores, Walmart has been trying to merge its physical store and online operations. Right now, their finance executives are reshuffling as they merge Jet.com into their online services. The Bentonville company stated in a memo that they would merge the U.S. Finance group into the greater overall finance team. The combined U.S. segment team will be led by Michael Dastugue, the company’s U.S. Finance Chief. The Finance Chief for Sam’s Club, Steve Schmitt, will be the CFO for the e-commerce division.

After reporting better than expected second quarter results, eBay stocks are trading higher. However, there are still some serious cracks showing within the business. The worst signs of weakness are in the core U.S. marketplace operation. More aggressive state tax enforcement on e-commerce companies is causing some serious setbacks. Even so, Wall Street analysts seem content with the current state of things.

Amazon is one of the largest, wealthiest business enterprises in the world. This is mostly due to their willingness to branch out and try nearly anything. Not all of their ventures have been extremely profitable, such as the lackluster Fire Phone, but many others have been extremely fruitful, allowing Amazon to branch beyond what they originally were in e-commerce, and into B2B commerce, smart speakers, digital advertising, and cloud computing. Yes, all of these financial ventures have been very successful, but they certainly won’t be Amazon’s crowning achievement; if their next plan works out, that is.

Many kids enjoy Halloween, but there’s always been an obvious disparity in how easy it is for some kids to go all out in...

eBay is finally moving forward with their plan to potentially sell the ticket exchange company StubHub. eBay made this statement to CNBC’s David Faber. Sources say that eBay is seriously considering the sale, due to the fact that many companies are interested in buying StubHub. Upon the news, eBay’s shares rose by about 2.8%, along with the tear the stocks have been on for most of this year, rallying more than 45%. It’s even outperforming the S&P 500, which is up 19% this year...

According to a release by the online retail giant, Amazon Prime Day 2019 sales surpassed it's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined, selling more than 175 million items to Prime members. Amazon went on to suggest that the event sold more Amazon devices than ever, including Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and more...

In the days after workers at its Shakopee, Minnesota facility announced it would strike during Amazon Prime Day, the statement hits back at those who’ve criticized its practices.

Amazon Prime Day, launched in 2015, marks one of the biggest shopping days for the online retail giant. Started as a celebration of its 20th anniversary, Prime Day now sees increasing consumer interest and sales projections.

Walmart is the largest private employer in the United States, and they have started to use virtual reality headsets to test the aptitude of employees in middle managements positions. These VR headsets put potential candidates in real life situations to test them when it comes to things like calming irritated or angry shoppers or providing tours to brand new employees.

Ever get the feeling you’re being watched? Usually it’s a person, keeping an eye out, to make sure goods aren’t being shoplifted. Walmart has gotten ahead of the curve though and is already employing artificial intelligence to take care of this problem for them. Over 1,000 Walmart stores have AI using their cameras to ensure that every item in a person’s bag or buggy is paid for before they step out the door.

By now, it’s become common knowledge that both Walmart and Target are actively competing with Amazon in just about every way they can manage....