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Kohl's is teaming up with FitFluential to offer exclusive fitness-related social media content, including purchase tips, as part of its sponsorship of the The Color Run paint race. Kohl's will be the department store partner for The Color Run, enabling the retailer to serve as the packet pick-up destination for participants in more than 100 cities nationwide. The brand is also demonstrating its commitment to wellness by launching the Make Your Move initiative and encouraging social media users to follow the conversation via the #MakeYourMove hashtag as FitFluential bloggers offer tips for fitness and relevant purchases.

Kate Spade Co. said Thursday that it would shutter its Kate Spade Saturday and Jack Spade stores as it seeks to focus on its flagship kate spade new york brand. The company said it would close 16 company-owned stores and three partnered locations for its lower-priced Kate Spade Saturday brand in the first half of 2015 as it transitions the line to a brand under kate spade new york. Kate Spade also plans to close its 12 company-owned Jack Spade stores in the first half of the year as it shifts to selling the brand online and through retail partners.

Gap announced Rebekka Bay, the designer recruited in 2012 to help reboot the iconic brand, is out of the company. "In evaluating the right leadership structure for the brand," Gap is "eliminating the Creative Director role, resulting in Rebekka Bay's departure from the company, effective immediately," the company wrote in a press release. Bay's departure is the latest in a slew of changes spurred by incoming CEO Art Peck. In November, Peck named new presidents for the $16 billion company's Gap and Banana Republic brands, and last week shuttered its digital Piperlime business.

To some, C. Wonder was doomed from the start, an effort to compete with the glamorous Tory Burch, whom Chris Burch was divorced from in 2006 and who turned the company they founded together into a $1 billion fashion empire. C. Wonder grew too quickly, Mr. Burch agreed, entering into ill-advised and costly store leases that reflected his singular vision of bringing low-priced, neon-bright goodies to the masses.

For Zappos’ call-center employees, more caller demand means more pay. In September, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh was wandering the halls of the online retailer's Las Vegas headquarters and noticed that the customer service center's walls were covered — floor to ceiling — with sheets of printer paper. Hsieh had stumbled across the scheduling method for the center's 540 employees, who respond to the 10,000 customer inquiries Zappos receives by phone, email and web chat every day. 

Ever bent on competing with everyone, Amazon.com launched an email service yesterday called WorkMail. The new service is exclusively for the workplace — not personal use. Amazon will be charging subscription fees of $4 a month for each account on WorkMail, prices that are in keeping with both Office 365 and Google Apps for Work. Additional features include calendaring, calendar sharing, tasks, contact lists, distribution lists, resource booking, public folders and away messages. The subscription will give users 50 gigabytes of email storage as well.

Sears Holdings cut 115 jobs at its headquarters and various corporate support locations as it seeks to reduce expenses in the face of years of losses. Employees were notified Tuesday that 100 positions at the company's Hoffman Estates, Ill., headquarters and 15 positions at other corporate support locations would be eliminated, effective immediately, the company said. The positions span various departments. About 5,500 employees work at the Hoffman Estates offices. 

Shoebuy, a Boston-based e-commerce shoe retailer owned by IAC, has acquired a minority stake in e-commerce boot maker startup Boston Boot Co., marking the company's first foray into the footwear manufacturing business. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. "Acquiring a minority stake in a shoe company presents us with a unique opportunity to both expand our business into a different side of the footwear industry and to provide a unique value for our customers," said Shoebuy CEO Mike Sorabella in an email. "This provides us with a chance to be innovative and play in the direct-to-consumer space."

Hennes & Mauritz AB, Europe's second-biggest clothing retailer, reported fourth-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates as the company added stores in China and the U.S. and expanded its collection. Net income rose to 6.22 billion kronor ($760 million) in the three months through November, the Stockholm-based company said in a statement today. This year "has gotten off to a good start, with strong sales in both December and January," H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson said in the statement. The stronger U.S. dollar will affect the company's sourcing costs, he added.

E-commerce giant Amazon.com is upping the ante on its free shipping policy. The company announced that all Amazon seller-fulfilled items are now eligible to contribute to Amazon's minimum order of $35 to qualify for free shipping. Therefore, customers can now get free shipping whether the items are fulfilled by Amazon or from the millions of small and local businesses selling on Amazon. This free shipping expansion more than triples the millions of items eligible to contribute for free shipping, and makes items from small and local businesses offering free shipping even more attractive to customers.