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In the decade since Etsy launched as a digital flea market for knitted headbands and handmade cards, it has evolved into the world’s fifth-largest online marketplace with 1.5 million active sellers and 21.7 million active buyers. Tuesday, the company announced that in the first half of 2015, its shops drove more than $1 billion in…

Alibaba has launched an English-language version of its fakes hotline after it signed exclusive deals with international retailers in a push to draw more global brands to its platform. China has gained a reputation for knock-off products and Alibaba has been trying to combat the problem on its own e-commerce sites over the past year.…

Sephora is testing out a new monthly beauty box subscription called "Play! By Sephora" in select markets, WWD reports. It's a $10-a-month box loaded with Sephora samples and extras including Spotify playlists, as well as "Play! Pass" coupons for in-store activations like one-on-one tutorials for the products in that month’s box. This sounds like a…

A U.S. judge rejected American Express’ settlement with merchants over credit card fees after finding the plaintiffs’ lawyer tainted the deal by exchanging confidential information with an attorney for MasterCard Inc. The rejection means that merchants and the card firm may have to renegotiate the deal or possibly go to trial. A conference is scheduled…

Whole Foods was just kidding with that $6 Asparagus Water. After the bottles — literally three stalks of asparagus in each bottle of water — were spotted on the shelf of a Whole Foods in California earlier this week, a photo of the asparagus water posted by a customer to Instagram started trending on social…

Target, the second largest general merchandise retailer in the U.S., announced this morning that it will start testing beacon technology in 50 of its stores nationwide. With beacon technology, the company says it will be able to send information about deals as well as recommendations directly to consumers’ smartphones, provided they opt in to receive…

Ron Johnson, who was a star as Apple's retail chief but fizzled at J.C. Penney, is finding some deep-pocketed believers for his latest act. Enjoy, Johnson's e-commerce startup that launched in May, just raised $50 million in funding, its second round in just 10 months. He has now raised a total of $80 million. Enjoy…

The parent company of iconic upscale Neiman Marcus retail stores Tuesday filed plans for an initial public stock offering. In a prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Dallas-based Neiman Marcus Group said it would seek to become publicly traded this year on an as yet undisclosed U.S. financial exchange under the ticker symbol…

We find ourselves mid-year 2015 with the back-to-school shopping season upon us. The National Retail Federation reports that shoppers plan to spend about $630 overall on clothing, shoes, supplies and electronics for their K-12 students this year, a nearly 6 percent decline from the $669 average planned budget in 2014. Since the recession, consumers’ back-to-school…

Online retailer Asos is confident in its ability to create valuable content. Native articles, like fashion-focused posts “Tombabe Style” and “Rule the Pool,” as well as interviews with celebrities like Azealia Banks, appear on the company’s homepage alongside new product arrivals, whereas other retailers tend to keep their content — e.g., blog posts, photo essays,…