Stage Stores, winner in Gordmans bankruptcy auction, will operate 50 locations by Russell Hubbard at Omaha World-Herald. "Substantially all of the remaining assets at Gordmans’ remaining 48 stores and other facilities are expected to be liquidated by Tiger Capital Group and Great American Group..." Read more | Press release   Walmart U.S. e-commerce execs explain to suppliers the retailer’s new strategy by Kim Souza at Talk Business. "Lore previously mentioned the new “It’s” protocol, but Breen and HIlton gave suppliers more details around the new strategy they say will make a difference for shoppers online and in store. The “It” [...]

  Amazon Wants Cheerios, Oreos and Other Brands to Bypass Wal-Mart by Spencer Soper & Craig Giammona at Bloomberg. "Amazon has invited some of the world's biggest brands to its Seattle headquarters in an audacious bid to persuade them that it's time to start shipping products directly to online shoppers and bypass chains like Wal-Mart, Target and Costco. Executives from General Mills, Mondelez and other packaged goods makers will attend the three-day gathering in May, Bloomberg has learned. Attendees will tour an Amazon fulfillment center and hear a presentation from Worldwide Consumer chief Jeff Wilke." Read more   Nordstrom taps former Wal-Mart e-commerce exec for supply chain [...]

  NO SECRETS - Amazon exec shares secrets of company’s culture, tries unsuccessfully to keep his talk secret by Taylor Soper at GeekWire. "Amazon offered a rare glimpse inside its culture on Tuesday at an entrepreneurship conference in Seattle — but also asked more than 600 attendees to keep the information shared by high-ranking executive Steve Kessel to themselves. As you can see from the tweets, there’s no such thing as secrecy in the age of smartphones and social media, especially when someone is talking to a crowd." Read more   Restoration Hardware's Q4 Comp Brand Revenue -18% Press release   Macy's [...]

  Nordstrom cutting 106 jobs by Janet I. Tu at Seattle Times. "The 106 positions being cut are all customer-care specialists, who answer customer questions via phone, online chat or email. In addition to the 30 people being laid off in Seattle, 18 people in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, are affected, as are 58 people who work from homes across the country, according to a Nordstrom spokeswoman." Read more   Wal-Mart Reorganizes Tech Group to Strengthen Mobile by Kim S. Nash at Wall Street Journal. "Jaya Kolhatkar, who joined Wal-Mart in 2013 through its acquisition of predictive analytics firm Inkiru Inc. [...]

  Amazon Delays Convenience Store Opening to Work Out Kinks by Laura Stevens at Wall Street Journal. "Amazon Go was due to launch to the public by the end of the month, after launching in beta mode to employees in December, according to people familiar with the matter. It is unclear when it will now open, as it works out kinks in the technology to automatically charge customers when they leave, instead of needing to have cash registers, checkouts and lines." Read more   Walmart CEO regrets that the retail giant took too long to get aggressive in digital. “We [...]

  Sportsman's Warehouse Names Ex-Walmart VP as President/COO "At Walmart, Jon Barker served in dual roles including President and CEO of Hayneedle.com as well as group leader for Home and Outdoor furnishings categories for U.S. ecommerce across Walmart.com, Jet.com and Hayneedle.com." Press release   ...Sportsman's Warehouse Q4 Comp Sales -5.2% Press Release | Earnings Call Transcript   GameStop to shut at least 150 stores, shares sink by Maria Armental at MarketWatch. "The retailer didn't immediately offer details on which stores would close, only adding that it planned to shave off 2% to 3% of the total." Read more   Amazon [...]

  Walmart announces plan to invest $800 million in Chile and open 55-60 new supermarkets via Reuters. "As part of the plan, the retail and supermarket chain will also remodel over 50 stores, add more than 5,000 jobs, and further develop a large distribution center near the capital city of Santiago." Read more   Five Below Q4 Comp Sales +1.0% Press release   eBay Asks Users to Downgrade Security at Krebs on Security. "I found it remarkable that eBay, which at one time was well ahead of most e-commerce companies in providing more robust online authentication options, is now essentially [...]

  Payless Is Said to Be Filing for Bankruptcy as Soon as Next Week by Lauren Coleman-Lochner & Jodi Xu Klein at Bloomberg. "The company is initially planning to close 400 to 500 stores as it reorganizes operations, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations aren’t public. Payless had originally looked to shutter as many as 1,000 locations, and the number may still be in flux, according to one of the people." Read more   Costco expands test of home grocery delivery through new third-party service by Jeff Daniels at CNBC. "Shipt said Tuesday that [...]