Amazon revealed its plans to open brick-and-mortar retail stores in the United States, with the first locations slated for California and Ohio. Amazon stores will be about 30,000 square feet smaller than most department stores, similar to smaller versions opened by Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom. The stores will give Amazon another outlet to sell its electronics and private-label goods, but what other brands it might offer aren’t final. Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce contributed to the failure of malls and other physical stores. Continue reading Amazon to Expand Physical Footprint with New Retail Stores

San Francisco-based Pinterest plans to unveil an image-discovery app aimed at jumpstarting a new kind of consumer shopping. The user points his smartphone camera at anything, taps dots over the object for recommendations of similar items, and the app searches 75 billion images for a visual match. Currently, Pinterest, valued at $11 billion, makes its revenue from advertising. With the image-discovery app, Pinterest could transform the company by encouraging consumers to embrace mobile shopping. Continue reading Pinterest Develops Image-Discovery App for Mobile Shopping

As an alternative to scanning barcodes, fashion-focused app Craves lets users take photos of clothing and perform searches of similar fashion items that can then be purchased via the app. Co-founder Scott Cormier was inspired to create the app after watching his wife snap photos of clothing she liked with her smartphone so she could research the items later on Pinterest and Google. Craves also features a social component that allows users to follow friends and influencers, track trending items, and receive sale notifications. Continue reading App Offers New Approach to Fashion Discovery and Shopping

The expedited shipping available to members of Amazon’s $99 Prime service may soon become available to external retail sites. Amazon recently secured a partnership with British fashion retailer AllSaints that allows Prime members to enjoy free next-day shipping on all purchases made via AllSaints.com. While Amazon hopes to expand its partnerships with other retail sites, it has already encountered some early resistance from retailers that are weary of the “Prime Pass” program. Continue reading Amazon Introduces “Prime Pass” with British Fashion Retailer

Home Depot has confirmed that hackers have breached its store payments system and may have stolen up to 60 million credit card numbers. The breach could affect customers who paid with a credit or debit card at any of the 2,157 stores in the U.S. and Canada between April and September. This latest hacking incident has led retailers to speed up the installation of chip-reading credit card terminals at their stores. Credit card companies are also adding security to their cards. Continue reading Recent Home Depot Hack Prompts Retailers to Upgrade Security

Facebook has created a new way to use ads that appeal more directly to its users. Through third party marketers, the social media site will use offline information in order to show advertisements that cater to a user’s specific interests. Even though personal information will reportedly stay secure, the approach is raising concerns regarding whether or not Facebook is trying to collect too much information from consumers. Continue reading New Facebook Ad Strategy May Cause Privacy Concerns