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Wal-Mart is reorganizing its e-commerce team and upgrading executives from its recent Jet.com acquisition to compete with Amazon with higher selectivity and lower prices. The changes are aimed at making Wal-Mart more customer-focused, Jet founder Marc Lore, who is now the Executive Chairman of Wal-Mart's e-commerce operation, said on Friday in a memo Bloomberg had access. Wal-Mart bought Jet in September for about $ 3.3 billion and is appealing to the startup to push for an online operation that has lagged behind Amazon. "We've talked a lot about becoming a more customer-centric organization," Lore said. "Our strategy is to offer...

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Retailers are bracing for a fresh wave of store closures at the start of the new year. The industry is heading into 2017 with a glut of store space as shopping continues to shift online and foot traffic to malls declines, according to analysts ~SNIP~Nearly every major department store, including Macy's, Kohl's, Walmart, and Sears, have collectively closed hundreds of stores over the last couple years to try and stem losses from unprofitable stores and the rise of ecommerce. But the closures are far from over. Macy's has already said that it's planning to close 100 stores, or about 15%...

Jeff Bezos said a gathering of tech titans Wednesday with President-elect Donald J. Trump had been “very productive,” and that the Amazon.com CEO emphasized to the incoming administration that innovation was key in creating new jobs. Bezos, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Apple’s Tim Cook and other high-flying tech executives attended a meeting at Trump Tower in New York with the president elect and his transition team. It was an encounter with a man who, as a candidate, rubbed many in the technology industry the wrong way with restrictive views on immigration and other social issues. Trump didn’t seem very happy with...

Sears (SHLD), the 130-year-old American icon, can’t find a way to stop the bleeding. The floundering retailer has closed hundreds of Sears and Kmart stores, cut costs and borrowed millions of dollars from CEO Eddie Lampert’s hedge fund to keep the business going. Sears invested in its online store and a loyalty program, Shop Your Way, in hopes of regaining its footing, but customers have yet to return in droves. On Thursday, Sears reported its fifth quarterly loss in a row, and sales continued their downward trend. Sears also revealed that it will accelerate plans to shutter underperforming stores. Jason...

Amazon will almost certainly enjoy its biggest ever day on Black Friday next week. The discount shopping event will help the American online retailer to continue its run of 22 years of unbroken and dramatic sales growth since it was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. It is now valued at more than $375bn (£304bn), making it one of the biggest companies in the world. However, despite the predicted spending spree on Black Friday, the rise of Amazon and Bezos now face arguably their biggest challenge yet - Donald Trump.... The battle started last December with a series of seemingly...

Moody's analysts say Sears and Kmart don't have enough money — or access to money — to stay in business. In a note published Wednesday, the analysts downgraded Sears' liquidity rating, saying the company is bleeding cash and will have to continue to rely on outside funding or the sale of assets, such as real estate, to sustain operations. "We recognize the risks associated with relying on these sources and continued shareholder support to finance its negative operating cash flow which is estimated by Moody's to be approximately $1.5 billion this year," the analysts wrote. Kmart in particular is...

Indonesia has asked the chairman of China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Jack Ma, to act as adviser in the development of the Southeast Asian country's nascent e-commerce industry, according to a video released by the government. Indonesia has the world's fourth-largest population, boasting a young, internet-savvy demographic, and a thriving e-commerce market that is increasingly attracting global investors. Earlier this year, Alibaba bought a controlling stake in Southeast Asian online retailer Lazada Group for around $1 billion, while a group of investors led by private equity firms KKR & Co LP and Warburg Pincus LLC poured more than $550 million...

Living here in Silicon Valley, one of the world's wealthiest areas and home to thousands of affluent tech entrepreneurs, it is hard to imagine life in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Life there is fraught with power outages, water restrictions, lack of medical supplies, an education system that has been weakened by bombings and forced closures, and high unemployment.

Macy’s says it plans to close about 100 stores next year as the department store operator aims to become more nimble in a competitive market. That represents close to 14 percent of its store base. […] The nation’s largest department store chain says that it earned $11 million, or 3¢ per share, in the quarter ended July 30. That compares with $217 million, or 64¢ per share, in the year-ago period. …

Melissa will do anything to feed her online-shopping addiction — even if that means subsisting off a diet of microwaveable soup. “I’ll eat only ramen in order to shop,” she says. The 34-year-old — who works in sales at Red Wing Heritage, a leather goods brand, and asked that her last name not be used for professional reasons — receives two to three packages a week at her East Village apartment thanks to her daily binges. “I love coming home and there’s a package,” she says. “It’s like there’s a prize at my door.” Americans spent a record $341.7 billion...

A major knives manufacturer from central California says his company was denied access to an internet payment processing service because they sell weapons online, raising questions about whether an anti-fraud program called Operation Choke Point is continuing to block legal businesses in the firearms and weapons industries from accessing basic banking services. “It was pretty simple and straightforward,” Aaron Hogue, co-owner of Hogue Inc., said of the situation he faced with Wells Fargo bank. “They called my controller, and said, ‘Sorry, but we’re not going to be able to process any credit card transactions for the sale of weapons online.’”...

Chick-fil-A is rolling out a new app that will let customers avoid waiting in line at the register. The app, called Chick-fil-A One, will allow customers to order and pay for their food in advance, then pick it up at a counter designated for online orders. That's big news for fans of Chick-fil-A, which is typically slammed with customers during regular meal times, making long lines inevitable. The app will also allow users to customize and save their favorite orders. Michael Lage, a veteran of Facebook and Google who helped develop the app, says it will change how customers, particularly...

Amazon.com, the popular online retailer, is reportedly under pressure from shareholders to stop selling products associated with Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. According to the New York Post, a group claiming to represent 1,500 Amazon shareholders has asked CEO Jeff Bezos to end its marketing of Trump shirts, hats, ties and other products promoting the Trump campaign. “This isn’t about politics: Donald Trump’s misogyny, racism and outright bigotry are dominating the political news cycle,” shareholder group UltraViolet said in a letter to Bezos. The letter noted the continued presence of Donald Trump products “poses a risk to...

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The artist who won the “draw Mohammed” cartoon contest attacked by terrorists last May in Garland, Texas, said his drawing was removed from eBay Wednesday on a “technicality.” Bosch Fawstin, a former Muslim, won $12,500 in prize money at the May 3, 2015, event, sponsored by Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), for a drawing that showed a sword-wielding prophet in a turban shouting, “You can’t draw me.” In reply, a cartoon bubble portrayed the artist as writing, “That’s why I draw you.” Two terrorists opened fire on officers outside the event before they were fatally shot by police.

Major retailers in the United States are shutting down hundreds of stores, and shoppers are reporting alarmingly bare shelves in many retail locations that are still open all over the country. It appears that the retail apocalypse that made so many headlines in 2015 has gone to an entirely new level as we enter 2016. As economic activity slows down and Internet retailers capture more of the market, brick and mortar retailers are cutting their losses. This is especially true in areas that are on the lower portion of the income scale. In impoverished urban centers all over the nation,...

PJ Media has an interesting piece on Ted Cruz when he was developing economic policy as the director of the Federal Trade Commission's Office of Policy Planning. PJ Media | What No One Seems to Know About Ted Cruz’s Past (A few highlights, read the article for the meat in between.)– Cruz launched an initiative to study the government's role in conspiring with established businesses to suppress e-commerce. – To lay a foundation, Cruz organized a conference on regulatory barriers to e-commerce.– After the conference, Cruz testified at a hearing supporting the online sales of contact lenses and pushed the...

<p>Amazon has banned the selling of the Confederate flag and Confederate flag merchandise, multiple sources reported Tuesday.</p> <p>Amazon followed other major retailers, including Wal-Mart (WMT) and Sears (SHLD), in banning sales of the Confederate flag. The Confederate flag has once again become toxic in the aftermath of a shooting last week at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.</p>

EBay says it will ban the listing of confederate flags and related items containing the confederate flag image - Reuters