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"Five years from now, we'll be more focused on our delivery business, with a higher mix of technology, and sell more private-label products," Ron Sargent, Staples' chairman/CEO, told investors attending the 26th Sanford Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference. "There will be more services in our mix, because there is not a lot of inventory and the margins are great.” The company will continue to expand its technology offerings. "We're already the third-largest reseller of computers, behind Best Buy and Walmart, but the problem with computers is that the more you sell, the more you lose — you price them low and promote them heavily."

Nashville, Tenn.-based Genesco Inc. is expanding into the Canadian market with the opening of three of its Journeys stores in Ontario. The company currently operates more than 1,000 Journeys stores across the United States, including its Journeys, Journeys Kidz and Shi by Journeys concepts. The retailer’s first Canadian location opened May 1, 2010 in Burlington, Ontario. Two additional Canadian locations will open June 5 in Mississauga, Ontario and Toronto. 

A proposal to help balance Michigan's budget has gained enough momentum that it's stirring a tax fight between the state's retailers and some lawmakers. Retailers, already hard hit by the recession, are fighting a bill to reduce the amount of money they receive as an incentive to quickly send sales tax payments to Lansing. The proposal, which would cost the state's retailers an estimated $5.8 million annually, would cause them to raise prices, lay off workers or close stores to offset the impact, said James Hallan, president and CEO of the Michigan Retailers Association.

The sharp cuts at U.S. Walmart stores, which came ahead of Memorial Day weekend, have already pushed rivals such as Target into price wars. And the markdowns are expected to keep coming throughout the summer. They're one of the boldest moves the world's largest retailer is making to turn around sluggish business at its U.S. namesake chain and win back shoppers from rivals. The cuts aren't across the store but target 22 foods and other essentials at an average savings of 30 percent — splashy enough to get attention and perhaps change perceptions. The retailer is also restoring items like certain soups and laundry detergent it stopped carrying when it tried to declutter its stores. It's also pushing more basic clothing such as socks and underwear after putting too much focus on trendy items that didn't sell.

Retailers have been plagued by issues; some have suffered from product misses, others from deep discounts, and everyone has been hurt by the decline in consumer spending. But one factor that has actually been a positive for the sector may now begin to put pressure on retailers. After a decade of a favorable sourcing environment, the cost of production is rising. Prices for cotton have nearly doubled over the last year, capacity in China is drying up and freight costs are expected to rise. And retailers, who have finally begun to regain their footing, will now be forced to up their prices to pass along some of the costs to consumers.

Europe's brewing economic crisis is threatening to halt luxury's rebound, but the industry is banking on growth from China and a recovering U.S. market. Leading executives from luxury retailers and design houses told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit that demand for fine merchandise was picking up in the United States, while China's shoppers were venturing frequently into Tokyo for top brands.

Macy's tapped Yahoo this week to recreate its offline Memorial Day sales circular into a Smart Ad-powered pullover ad unit in Yahoo Mail, becoming the first retailer to run the advertisement. Yahoo worked with PointRoll to develop the rollover technology integrated into the Smart Ad. Clicking on it takes consumers to the Macy's home page, but hovering over it opens the unit into a full-page circular, taking up the entire page in Yahoo Mail.

Bass Pro Shops has implemented a Facebook tab for fans to buy gift cards that will be delivered via a text message or an e-mail. The digital messages can include personalized audio for purchasers with microphone functionality, as well as uploaded photos from Facebook. Recipients will see instructions for printing the gift cards, which can be redeemed online, via phone, or at the outdoors gear retailer's 56 locations. The browsing experience occurs within a pop-up shopping cart app without requiring users to navigate away from Facebook.

After learning how to market themselves through tweets and status updates, some small companies are taking the next step: selling directly to consumers via social-networking sites. Merchants on Facebook and MySpace are adding e-commerce stores to their fan pages, hoping users will scan lists of for-sale items and services — such as floral bouquets, hand-crafted jewelry and spa treatments — and click a button to add them to online shopping carts.

H&M Style Eye was sponsored by Lucky Magazine, Conde Nast Digital and MTV Networks, and was held on Facebook. Whoa, watch out multipurpose powerhouses! For the contest, users uploaded stylish photos of themselves while others voted. H&M went on to choose the three most stylish, flew them to New York for a weekend, along with a $500 H&M gift card and a photo shoot for the July issue of Lucky. Best of all (and supremely smart of H&M), the entire hoopla was shot on video and then broadcast on YouTube and Facebook.