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Home Depot's efforts to advance tech innovation in retail will be getting a big boost from the company's latest initiative. The retailer has partnered with Georgia Tech University to create a cutting-edge research center, focused on advancing tech innovations, education and giving young talent an opportunity to grow. The new Home Depot Technology Center will allow the company to work with more than 40 startup companies housed at Georgia Tech.

Apple Pay doubters question whether anyone will swipe their iPhone at a store checkout counter. But as mobile shopping booms, Apple Pay is already showing huge returns for early adopters. It's a small sample size, with Apple Pay only out since late October, but so far iPhone owners with the service enabled are vastly more likely to make online purchases on their phones. Take sports and concert ticket search app SeatGeek, whose sleek new checkout screen boasts a conversion rate up to 30 percent. With Apple Pay, that follow-through rate shoots up to 80 percent.

Adidas said it will sell the Rockport shoe business to a company formed jointly by competitor New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. as it takes the first steps toward a revival. New Balance has teamed with private-equity firm Berkshire Partners LLC to acquire the footwear maker for $280 million, Adidas said in a statement. Rockport will become part of a new company, which will also include New Balance's Drydock business.

J.C. Penney and Hallmark have decided they have a match. Last fall, the two companies tested 500-square-foot shops selling cards, gifts, gift wrap and bags in 15 Penney stores. The companies expect to move ahead with the collaboration and open more Hallmark shops in Penney stores later this year. "Our Hallmark pilot has gone well and we will be exploring additional Hallmark shops inside J.C.Penney later this spring," said Penney spokeswoman Sarah Holland.

When J.C. Penney announced this month that it would shutter 40 U.S. stores, At Home Group Inc. saw an opening. Executives at the retail chain, which sells home decor in warehouses and other large spaces, checked the list of targeted stores and called J.C. Penney within a few hours to express interest in buying some of them. It helps that At Home had already researched J.C. Penney's more than 1,000 U.S. locations ahead of time, just as a shopper would gear up for a big sale.

The Great Recession hobbled the U.S. economy and crushed many businesses, but some companies thrived, including the so-called "dollar" stores. Shoppers flocked to them because you could buy a lot with not much money. And as the economy rebounds, people are still going to some. But one chain, Family Dollar, hasn't kept pace with its competitors. Shareholders of Family Dollar voted Thursday to sell to a rival chain, Dollar Tree, for $8.7 billion. In doing so, shareholders left a bigger offer from Dollar General on the table, citing antitrust fears. 

Recent weeks have brought some major shake-ups to the e-commerce world as Sophia Amoruso stepped down as CEO of Nasty Gal and Eric Koger stepped down as CEO of ModCloth. While some may wonder if such personnel changes signal the fall of vertically integrated retail, I believe the industry is entering a new phase where successful players will look and behave more like retailers and less like tech startups.

On Sunday morning, Dec. 7, Michael Jeffries called some of the senior executives at Abercrombie & Fitch to discuss the holiday season. That was typical Jeffries. He was the creator and CEO of the modern-day Abercrombie and had controlled virtually every aspect of the company for the past 22 years. He approved every piece of clothing and for a while every employee, too, including the clone army of beautiful young men who stood shirtless at store entrances. 

eBay has made billions reinventing ways to sell items on the internet. Now, in the face of declining growth, the company must reinvent itself once more. Facing stiff competition and the declining growth of its auctions business, eBay announced a shake-up of the company on Wednesday, saying it planned to cut 2,400 positions, or 7 percent of its global workforce. "It's going to get a little bit worse before it gets better," said Bob Swan, chief financial officer of eBay, citing declines of traffic and repeat customers in the company's online auction business. 

Wal-Mart is launching a service allowing customers to pick up their tax refunds in cash at all stores nationwide. It's the discounter's latest move to offer more financial services, which is seen as a path to bringing more shoppers into its stores. The world's largest retailer, based in Bentonville, Ark., says the process will take the same time as if customers were to file their returns electronically and then get direct deposit, which could take just a week, says Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of services for Wal-Mart's U.S. division.