Executives at Kohl's have cause for optimism. The first-quarter earnings for the company that has more than 1,100 stores spread over 49 states were better than analysts expected, coming in at 66 cents per share versus the expected 56 cents per share, Barrons reports. Gross margins also improved, but revenue and same-store sales went down.

"Kohl's continues to improve its merchandising and better manage inventories.  These turnarounds take time," Brian Rogers, chairman of T. Rowe Price Group, one of the company’s largest investors, told Barrons.com. "Kohl's has also raised its dividend and continued to repurchase stock. I'm still a believer."

Now the company has made a big investment to help continue its turnaround by hiring 45-year-old Michelle Gass away from Starbucks, where she spearheaded the Frappuccino's rise to prominence, to serve in a position Kohl’s created for her: Chief Customer Officer.Continue reading...

Amazon is courting the lucrative world of fan fiction with its launch of Kindle Worlds, the first commercial publishing platform for authors and the first of its kind to create an ammicable relationship between the creators of the 'worlds' and pen-happy fans. 

Often hotly debated due to copyright laws, fan fiction has been near-impossible to monetize. However, Amazon has secured licenses with Warner Bros. Alloy Entertainment division for the best-selling book series Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liar and Vampire Diaries for starters. Over 50 commissioned works will debut with the platform in June, as well. 

The platform will pay royalties to the rights holders of the 'worlds' and the fan authors will receive royalties based on story length: 35 percent of net revenue for works of 10,000 words or more, and 20 percent of net revenue for works between 5,000 and 10,000 words.Continue reading...

Google is on the move, expanding its two-month old Google Shopping Express, its challenger in same-delivery service to eBay Now and Amazon Prime. The service is rolling out in the San Francisco Bay Area and beta tester sign-up is now open.

Mashable reports the delivery service has "been doing well enough and worked out the kinks to expand a little more." The expansion will include more products from retail partners, improved 360-degree images for product browsing and a bigger fleet of third-party couriers. Despite the success, the service faces some steep competition. “Google faces tough competition from more established businesses and startups in the space—not to mention the fact that Google has a mixed track record when it comes to commerce,” notes Mashable.Continue reading...

Salt Lake City-based startup Needle offers a twist on social commerce, utilizing brand loyalists as shopping guides for curious consumers.

Its workforce, a team of brand experts that operate like freelance customer service reps, earn an hourly rate up to $12 and have a hosted profile on the retailer's website. “They love the products, they want to be in the loop on what’s new,” founder Morgan Lynch told brandchannel. His current workforce numbers about 20,000. “They’re contractors, who can come and go, but we have an extensive on-boarding process—that’s why I think there’s a difference between crowdsourcing and a distributed workforce.”

The service was inspired by Lynch's own shopping experience, in which he struggled to find reliable recommendations online for a product, and instead ended up buying the item in-store. The frustrating experience led to Needle, which gives "consumers the ability to find the perfect item online at the right time."Continue reading...

Folks have plenty of options when it comes to streaming online movies and TV shows: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Apple's iTunes come to mind, but Target apparently thinks the space has room for one more.

The retailer is reportedly testing a beta version of Target Ticket, a TV and movie-streaming service with access to 15,000 titles.  

It will also provide “new releases, classic movies, and next-day TV,” the beta site claims. Right now, it’s just being tested on Target’s own employees, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports. This joins another employee-only beta test currently underway that allows people to order products online and pick them up at the store.Continue reading...

Having conquered the internet, video and now launched into music, Google is moving into shopping through YouTube's new "channel gadget."

"To shorten the path to purchase and translate video views to sales, today we’re introducing a new channel gadget on YouTube that will enable consumer goods brands to connect consumers directly with retailers throughout the entire YouTube experience," Google wrote in a blog post. "This new channel gadget will enable shoppers to seamlessly move from browsing how-to videos and featured products to finding which retailers carry them, check availability, compare prices and make a purchase, all with fewer clicks than today." 

Google's first client is Unilever’s Tresemmé, which already has a robust YouTube channel in place featuring celebrities and style setters. Now users can click on the products in demo videos for purchase information, a perk that will only appear on brand channel pages.Continue reading...

Target Corp’s Cartwheel, released in public beta today, combines social networking and discounts in the retailer’s latest move to lure traffic to its physical stores and away from online rivals. 

As brick and mortar retailers struggle for relevance, fighting the growing trend of “showrooming,” they’re turning to social media to attact consumers with unique deals. Target worked with Facebook for about a year on Cartwheel, whose tagline reads, "A whole new spin on saving," where shoppers can choose from hundreds of deal items such as Target's own Threshold home goods as well as brand goodies like M&Ms candy and Coca-Cola soft drinks. 

The Cartwheel launch includes 700 new offers, and claiming any one generates automatic News Feed posts on Facebook unless the user turns them off.Continue reading...

With mobile a big focus for Target CMO Jeff Jones, the retailer recently announced a mobile incubator to come up with apps to reinvent shopping. Fast-forward to today, with the release of Cartwheel in public beta merging social networking and discounts in the retailer’s latest move to lure traffic to its physical stores and away from online rivals.

As brick and mortar retailers struggle for relevance, fighting the growing trend of “showrooming,” they’re turning to social media to attact consumers with unique deals. Target has been working with Facebook for about a year on Cartwheel—tagline: "A whole new spin on saving"—in order to let its customers on Facebook choose from hundreds of deal items such as Target's own Threshold private label home goods as well as brand goodies like M&M's candy and Coca-Cola soft drinks.

The Cartwheel launch includes 700 new offers, and claiming any one generates automatic News Feed posts on Facebook unless the user turns them off.Continue reading...