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If free shipping is the industry standard, as eBay states, then 21 of 25 top e-commerce retailers haven't gotten the memo. A look at 25 retailers found that only Newegg, Costco and L.L.Bean offer unconditional free shipping (Netflix isn't applicable to this discussion). Most of the top retailers (18 of 25) offer free shipping as an incentive to increase order size, such as requiring shoppers to spend a minimum of $25 before becoming eligible for free shipping. While eBay sellers can offer combined shipping discounts, they're unable to use incentives like most e-commerce retailers thanks to eBay's rudimentary shopping cart.

During a recent earnings call, Union, N.J.-based Bed Bath & Beyond announced plans to open approximately 40 new stores across all of the company's concepts during fiscal 2012. The company also said that it plans to continue to relocate, remodel and expand a number of stores. "We believe that throughout the United States and Canada, there's an opportunity to operate an excess of 1,300 Bed Bath & Beyond stores, as well as continue to grow our Christmas Tree Shops and buybuy BABY concepts from coast to coast," said Warren Eisenberg, co-chairman of Bed Bath & Beyond.

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn has upheld a permanent injunction on a Colorado law that would have required out-of-state online retailers to report their in-state customers’ purchases to Colorado tax authorities and notify those customers of the resulting sales tax owed to the state.

Avon Products today announced that it has appointed Sherilyn S. (Sheri) McCoy as CEO. McCoy will join Avon effective April 23, and will also serve as a director on the company's board. She assumes leadership of Avon following a 30-year career at Johnson & Johnson, where she rose to become vice chairman of the company's pharmaceutical, consumer, corporate office of science & technology, and IT divisions. McCoy's responsibilities included stewardship for a broad portfolio of world-famous consumer brands including Neutrogena, Aveeno, Lubriderm, Clean & Clear, and ROC.

A spokesman for the Canadian Heritage Minister said that the government will conduct a review of Target’s store opening plans in the country to ensure its books, DVDs, music and other cultural products have enough Canadian content. The review, which comes as Target is laying the groundwork to open the first of 125 to 135 stores in former Zellers’ locations in 2013, falls under a “cultural heritage” provision in Canada’s foreign takeover law.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target has committed $15,000 in cash and gift cards to assist the Texas communities impacted by recent tornados. Cash donations will be distributed to The Salvation Army and the American Red Cross. In addition, Target has donated gift cards...

NEW YORK— The ax has fallen at JCPenney. The company on Thursday laid off 600 workers from its corporate headquarters Plano, Texas, as its looks to streamline its business model amid a major reinvention of the business. The staff reduction, which equaled...

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Staples has nominated Dr. Drew Faust, president of Harvard University, to its board of directors. The election of directors will take place at the company’s annual meeting, scheduled for June 4. “We’re very pleased to nominate Dr....

6 minutes ago, 5:19am (ET) 04/06/2012 M2 Fashion retailer Nordstrom Inc (NYSE:JWN) on Thursday reported preliminary total retail sales of USD1.03bn for the five-week period ended 31 March 2012. This was a 14.7% increase as compared with total retail sales of USD897m in March of fiscal 2011. For the quarter-to-date period preliminary total retail sales were USD1.73bn, up 15.3% as compared with total retail sales of USD1.50bn in the corresponding quarter-to-date period of the prior year. On a same-store basis sales were up by 8.6% and 9.2% for the month and quarter to-date period, respectively. Comments on this story

Online sales of apparel and accessories are now growing faster than any other e-commerce product segment, and the category is poised to help U.S. retail e-commerce sales grow 15.4 percent to $224.2 billion in 2012 after stronger-than-expected sales took the market to $194.3 billion last year, according to a new report by eMarketer.