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Dick's Sporting Goods is factoring the potential of added sales from e-commerce into its brick-and-mortar expansion plans, even as it announces it was lowering its projections for how many stores it will eventually have. While the company now operates more than 600 stores, Dick's expects to max out at 750 stores by the end of 2017, less than the 800 stores the company originally forecast. Dick's leadership is pitching investors on the potential of new stores as a way to achieve more sales online.

Target was hoping for a smooth launch for one of its most highly anticipated designer collaborations in years. Instead, the discount retailer's website was overwhelmed in the early hours on Sunday as legions of fashionistas who had been up overnight tried to snap up Lilly Pulitzer's fashions, only to encounter delays in the colorful beachwear line's availability on Target.com and, in many cases, end up empty handed. The incident has raised questions as to why the retailer wasn't fully ready for the onslaught.

A union representing Wal-Mart workers who lost their jobs when the retailer suddenly closed five stores last week said it would seek an injunction on Monday from the National Labor Relations Board to have them rehired. Wal-Mart announced last week that it was closing five stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and California temporarily to fix plumbing issues. It said it would seek to reopen the stores, which employed about 2,200 people, as quickly as possible.

China's e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group, has been fined 800,000 yuan ($129,000) by the price bureau in eastern Zhejiang province for violations by third-party sellers during promotions on its e-commerce platforms. Since Alibaba turned "Singles' Day", a Nov. 11 Chinese response to Valentine's Day, into an online shopping festival in 2009, the event has grown to similar proportions as Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the United States.

Simply Fashion Stores has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it plans to liquidate substantially all of its assets. The Birmingham, Ala.-based urban fashion retailer, which operates nearly 250 stores in 25 states, said declining sales was one of the primary factors behind the bankruptcy. In a court filing, the restructuring officer for the retailer said the company expects some Simply Fashion locations will be forced to close as part of the process. The filing didn't disclose how many stores would close. The company has 1,332 employees.

During a meeting with analysts Wednesday, Walgreens president Alex Gourlay ticked through a list of measures the company had taken since launching a cost-cutting initiative last year that has grown to $1.5 billion. The drug store chain, which is now known as Walgreens Boots Alliance after recently merging with a U.K. company, will be closing some 200 U.S. stores and reorganizing certain parts of its management. One move in particular is getting plenty of attention: Last November, the company froze salaries of its senior leadership, though it continued to hand out merit increases to rank-and-file employees.

Apple's method of releasing products like the iPhone is straightforward: On the day of release, you buy the phone at a retail store or it's delivered if you ordered online. The process is a lot less clear for the Apple Watch. Apple first said in March that the Watch will be available starting April 24. Yet the company was vague about whether that meant the device, which starts at $350, would be as obtainable as iPhones have been on their first day in stores. Apple instead said the gadget would be available online or by reservation in retail stores.

One of St. Louis' oldest public companies, Brown Shoe, is stepping out with a new name, Caleres. Brown has been part of the corporate name since the company's founding in 1878. Next month, however, that name will be dropped once shareholders approve the change on May 28. "Brown Shoe doesn't conjure up the image of who we are today," Brown Shoe's CEO, president and chairwoman Diane Sullivan said in an interview. "Our name has to be more than a name — it must be managed as a brand. It's hard to be emotional about a brown shoe."

Macy's has promoted diversity among its own workforce, and its employees are driving the company in new directions. If you step into a Macy's these days, you may notice that some of the mannequins in the women's department don't look like most of the others. They're a little smaller on the bottom and bigger on the top, and their legs are just a bit shorter. How these figures took their place on the retail floor says a lot about the way in which Macy's has promoted diversity among its own workforce.

Online merchants have already proven they're willing to share the most precious of proprietary data with Google, even transactions, pricing and tracking data in the case of Google Trusted Stores. But are they willing to hand over shoppers’ email addresses? Many people are familiar with ads that follow them around the internet, called retargeting or remarketing.