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Improving the cross-channel customer experience and optimizing the supply chain ranked as retailers' biggest challenges in a new study by Oracle. The report also found that mobile access is key: Forty percent of retailers said that providing store associates with mobile access to customer, product, inventory and other information is critical to their business, along with providing the entire organization with a more consistent and complete view of the customer (40%).

Five Below Inc announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 9,615,384 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $17.00 per share. The shares will be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and will trade under the ticker symbol FIVE beginning on July 19, 2012. Five Below is offering 4,807,692 shares of common stock and selling shareholders are offering 4,807,692 shares of common stock. The underwriters also have an option to purchase up to an additional 1,442,308 shares from certain selling shareholders. Five Below will not receive any proceeds from the sale

Englewood, Colo. -- The Western Union Co. and Dollar General Corp. said that they have executed an agreement to begin offering two Western Union general-purpose reloadable prepaid cards at Dollar General’s more than 10,000 stores in 40 states. Dollar General is now offering the Western Union MoneyWise and co-branded Western Union Telemundo cards. “Prepaid cards are growing in popularity as a useful money-management tool, and we’re happy to offer them in our stores as an added convenience for our customers,” said Todd Vasos, Dollar General’s executive VP, division president and chief merchandising officer.

Chicago -- The first of Target’s smaller-format CityTarget urban stores are slated to open on July 25 in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. Two years in the making, the smaller stores will feature broad offerings in a space two-thirds the size of a regular Target store – or 80,000 sq. ft. to 100,000 sq. ft., compared with 135,000 sq. ft. to 175,000 sq. ft. Target has said it will open another Los Angeles CityTarget store later this year, as well as a first store in San Francisco. A third Los Angeles location and one in Portland, Ore., are slated

Following in the footsteps of Target's and American Eagle's nationwide rollouts, Macy’s announced Wednesday it would begin offering shopkick rewards at its more than 800 stores. Using shopkick's app for iPhone or Android devices, shoppers can collect points, or "kicks," by visiting and performing certain tasks in Macy's stores. They can then exchange their kicks for Macy's-specific rewards like gift cards, as well as for more general rewards, including song downloads, restaurant certificates, movie tickets, Facebook Credits, charity donations, etc.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Revenue at eBay soared 23% to $3.4 billion during the company's second quarter, thanks to strong performances in its Marketplaces and PayPal businesses. The company reported second quarter net income on a non-GAAP basis of $730 million, or 56 cents per diluted share, up 16% year over year primarily due to strong top-line growth partially offset by increased investment in the shopping experience and the impact of acquisitions. GAAP net income of $692 million, or 53 cents per diluted share, reflected a gain on the divestiture of a business in 2012 and increased significantly year-over-year

Empathica's Consumer Insights Panel surveyed more than 6,500 U.S. consumers and found that mobile and social customer experience strategies are becoming more important than ever for brands, with retail and restaurant consumers using these channels to make decisions — even while in-store.

LivingSocial officially announced its first foray into selling physical products. LivingSocial Shop is similar to the company's original business in that it will send an email to consumers offering a limited set of products at a discount. But unlike the rest of the Washington, D.C.-based business, which sells vouchers that are redeemed at spas and restaurants, these products will be delivered right to a customer's door.

Chicago -- Amazon ranks as the coolest mobile or social affiliate program, according to a survey conducted by EPiServer, a provider of multichannel digital marketing and e-commerce software. The survey was conducted among CEOs, VPs, directors and e-commerce managers at more than 94 organizations including retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers, catalogers, web-only merchants and local-retailers. Forty-seven percent of respondents selected Amazon as the coolest mobile or social affiliate program they have seen to date, followed by eBay at 20%, and Shopkick and Wrapp each with 5%. When it comes to leveraging the partner relationships businesses require to thrive in

Books-A-Million, Inc. announced that the Anderson family has withdrawn the previously announced non-binding proposal made on April 28, 2012, to acquire all of the outstanding publicly-held shares of the common stock of the Company for $3.05 per share. After discussing the proposal with the Special Committee of the Company`s Board of Directors and its advisors, the Anderson family has decided not to pursue the proposed acquisition at this time.