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For Matthews, N.C.-based Family Dollar Stores, May could be one of the biggest months in the discount retailer's 56-year history. Chesapeake, Va.-based Dollar Tree has said it expects its $8.5 billion purchase of Family Dollar to close this month, capping a 10-month takeover drama. But the close has been delayed before, and neither company would comment this week. After Family Dollar shareholders approved the deal in January, the biggest remaining hurdle became regulatory approval from the Federal Trade Commission. 

Etsy sellers began experiencing problems with Instagram, Facebook and Wanelo on Thursday, highlighting the impact of glitches on sellers’ businesses as well as the love-hate relationship between marketplaces and social networking sites. Sellers who were blocked from the sites discussed the issue at great length on the Etsy boards, with some revealing the extent to which many rely on such sites for traffic to their product listings. Sellers said they were being blocked from Instagram and tried to figure out why. 

Your mother hates your tattoos. So does your Apple Watch, apparently. Tattooed wrists can prevent the Apple Watch's heart rate sensor from functioning properly, according to some customers. Since the Apple Watch uses your heart rate to determine whether you're wearing it, you might not be able to use Apple Pay, receive notifications, place calls or use certain apps if you have tattoos on your wrists. Some Apple Watch wearers on Reddit and Twitter complained about the tattoo issue, and Apple blog iMore confirmed that the problem exists.

A Sephora executive at the Mcommerce Summit: State of Mobile Commerce 2015, said Apple Pay is receiving a warm welcome from its customers who are early adopters, but mainstream shoppers will need both help from educated staff and an experimentation period to grow comfortable with the technology. A takeaway from the session, Sephora: Making Mobile Payments a Loyalty Strategy, was that awareness and education are crucial to spur adoption of Apple's mobile wallet, not just across Sephora's stores but throughout the commercial world.

J.C. Penney wants people to know that it had no supplier relationships with factories housed in the building that collapsed in Banglade

Sears partnered with mall owner Macerich Co., the latest step in the retailer’s efforts to wring more money from its real estate.

Tell a group of science fiction writers to imagine the future of retail and what will they come up with? It's shaping up to be a world entrenched in virtual reality, robotic sales associates and now, the ability to 3-D print custom items for your home, Lowe's Innovation Labs has learned. In the latest project to come out of the home improvement store's innovation labs, Lowe's Orchard Supply Hardware store in Mountain View, California, on Wednesday will debut 3-D printing and scanning services that let shoppers customize their home accents and fixtures.

Uber is planning to launch a merchant delivery program that would allow online shoppers to get same-day delivery of goods through both UberRush couriers and Uber drivers. TechCrunch has obtained training documents for Uber drivers and couriers who are part of the merchant delivery pilot program. Sources say that Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany's, Cohen's Fashion Optical and Hugo Boss are all in talks with the Uber Merchant Delivery program, and one source in particular said that there are over 400 different merchants currently in talks (or already testing) with Uber for same-day delivery.

Lumber Liquidators says it will probably lose $10 million on criminal charges filed against it by the Department of Justice regarding the safety of some of its wood-flooring products. Investors may beg to differ. On a conference call with analysts on Wednesday, Lumber Liquidators indicated that customer testing and the legal and professional fees associated with the Chinese-made wood-flooring issues highlighted in a "60 Minutes" report last month have already cost the company more than $5.5 million, on top of the $10 million it set aside for the government's criminal investigation.

Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group recently invested in Jet.com, a soon-to-launch online retailer that hopes to challenge Amazon.com, multiple sources confirmed to Forbes. Alibaba's previously undisclosed investment came as part of Jet's $140 million round in February, which was led by Bain Capital Ventures and joined by the likes of Accel Partners, New Enterprise Associates and others. The Montclair, N.J.-based company also raised about $5 million last month in a filing disclosed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.