Nordstrom to lay off about 350 to 400 people - majority of the cuts coming from HQ by Janet I Tu at Seattle Times. "The 400 positions represent nearly 6 percent of the company’s 7,000 employees who work for corporate divisions...The cuts should be completed by July and are expected to save the company about $60 million." Read more   How Sam's Club Is Widening its E-Commerce Lead Over Costco by Phil Wahba at Fortune. "(Sam’s Club’s) web site now gets 16 million unique visits a month and sells 51,000 different kinds of items...All that has given Sam’s Club [...]

  Target's Marimekko Collection Gets More Tepid Response on Launch by Phil Wahba at Fortune. "The majority of items in the 200 item collection, which feature Marimekko’s distinctive patterns and bright colors ranging from $7.99 to $499.99, were still available for sale online on Sunday mid-afternoon, Eastern time. About 50 are now sold out." Read more   ...WSJ: Early crowds at three New York-area stores were sparse, and many of those shopping were Europeans more familiar with the brand than Americans by Khadeeja Safdar. "Robert Bates, 29, listed some items from the Marimekko collection on eBay for a few dollars more [...]

  Nearly half of U.S. households belong to Amazon Prime by Rachel Lerman at Seattle Times. "Piper Jaffray says households that make more than $112,000 annually are the most likely to subscribe to Prime...Nearly three-fourths of high-income households subscribe to the service, according to the report, an increase from about 55 percent in 2014." Read more | PiperJaffray report   This Is Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz's Advice to Target by Phil Wahba at Fortune. "Schultz told the Target audience that focusing on the basics was the key to the Starbucks’ renaissance. “For the Starbucks team, it all comes back to one [...]

  NY Times: Some Online Bargains May Only Look Like One by David Streitfeld. "Ripen eCommerce, analyzed 746,000 product searches on Amazon...A little over 44 percent of the products — some sold directly by Amazon, others by third parties — were billed as discounted, Ripen said. “It’s less than I expected, actually,” said Dave Rekuc, Ripen’s director of marketing. “Considering you can basically name your own list price.” Read more   Pier 1 Q4 Comp Sales Fall 0.6% "Total sales for the fourth quarter decreased 1.4%...E-Commerce represented approximately 15% of total sales in the fourth quarter, as compared to approximately [...]

  Wal-Mart expands online grocery pickup to eight more cities by Nathan Layne at Reuters. "The expansion...will increase the number of stores with the service by a third to about 200 and widen its footprint to 30 cities...In addition to Kansas City, Missouri and Austin, Texas, Wal-Mart will roll out the service later this month to select stores in Boise, Idaho; Richmond and Virginia Beach, Virginia; Provo, Utah; Daphne, Alabama and Charleston, South Carolina." Read more   Target CEO Brian Cornell buys $1.9M Kenwood home by Nick Halter at Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal. "Target Corp. CEO Brian Cornell bought a $1.9 [...]

  CNBC: Retailers cutting costs at the expense of quality by Krystina Gustafson. "...These lower-quality tops can be made from rayon (derived from wood pulp) or other synthetic materials, he said. By using such lighter fabrics, clothing is both cheaper to produce and ship. "The truth is you can create sheer tees from practically anything," Quan said." Read more   HOME DEPOT CMO TRISH MUELLER FEATURED IN "ABOVE THE CLUTTER" VIDEO via Ad Age. "Above the Clutter With Pete Krainik” cuts through the jargon and the myriad links, sales pitches and distractions in an “Anthony Bourdain No Reservations” meets “Undercover Boss” [...]

  Best Buy retools stores in New York by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. "The Richfield-based electronics retailer in the last year has poured $5 million to $10 million into upgrades in the New York region, which is one of its largest markets with about 45 stores...“It’s not just new paint and new floors,” said Carly Charlson, a Best Buy spokeswoman." Read more   Traffic jam as Taipei region welcomes 4th Costco outlet at Focus Taiwan. "W. Craig Jelinek, chief executive officer of Costco, attended the opening ceremony where a lion dance troupe performed...customers began to gather before 7 a.m., [...]

  Wal-Mart's head of U.S. online marketing leaves for startup by Nathan Layne at Reuters. "The departure of Brian Monahan after three years at Wal-Mart was announced by NewCo, the startup he helped launch in 2012 in San Francisco with media industry veteran John Battelle." Read more   Amazon now has three CEOs by John Cook at GeekWire. "The company today announced that longtime execs Andy Jassy and Jeff Wilke will now hold the titles of CEO, albeit in their respective divisions. Jeff Bezos remains the CEO of the entire company." Read more   Target's Casey Carl and Mike McNamara on [...]