Management

Target's customers are looking for answers and connected solutions. Best Buy is looking for new customers, specifically how to reach women and families. So, is the Geek Squad and Target a match made in heaven? Most retail partnering experiments and mergers fail, but the Best Buy Geek Squad in Target might just work. The consumer needs for services in a mobile and highly connected digital world require more than the traditional product-centric merchandising of mass merchants.

eBay is launching a new export service called the eBay Global Shipping Program to facilitate cross-border trade. The new service, which eBay hasn't yet announced, will launch in September and will be operated by Pitney Bowes. With the Global Shipping Program, a seller can ship items to buyers in other countries with minimal concern over issues such as customs duty and taxes and shipping regulations and restrictions.

Newly launched loyalty programs and advances in its CRM solutions will provide Abercrombie & Fitch with "a single view of the customer across channels to target both product and promotional messages to customers on a segmented or, ultimately, individualized basis," said CEO Michael Jeffries during a recent conference call discussing the retailer's second quarter financial results.

Best Buy has tapped Hubert Joly, the former head of global hospitality company Carlson and a turnaround expert, as the nation's largest consumer electronics chain's new CEO and president. The announcement, made Monday, comes after the ailing retailer said Sunday that its offer to advance talks with company co-founder Richard Schulze on his takeover bid was rejected.

CNBC's John Fortt reports on how Apple's new retail chief John Browett's staffing strategy is impacting the company.

Gary Friedman, the chairman and co-chief executive of Restoration Hardware, has stepped down from his positions after an internal inquiry into an intimate relationship he had with a 26-year-old female employee, according to people involved in the matter. The leadership change earlier this week comes at a significant moment for Restoration Hardware as it prepares for an initial public offering. Friedman, 54, often appears in the company's catalogs in jeans and a T-shirt and is considered the driving force behind the company's vision and aesthetic, which includes high-priced faux antique furniture and hardware accessories.

Apple said recent staffing changes it made in its retail stores selling iPhones, iPads and Macs were "a mistake," and is reversing the policies. Staffing was reduced at some locations and hours were cut as...

Is Sears selling itself off, bit by bit? It sure looks that way. The retailer's plan, announced this week, to divest itself of more than 1,000 Hometown and Outlet stores marks its latest move to slice off chunks of its ailing business. Eddie Lampert, the hedge fund guru who leads Sears and is its majority shareholder, has been selling off the chain's assets over the past seven years. He's done so instead of investing in reviving its 810 full-line department stores, critics say.

Home furnishings retailer Restoration Hardware is reorganizing its leadership team to better align with the company's new strategy to develop new lines of business, including apparel, accessories, footwear and jewelry, while maintaining its existing home business.

J.C. Penney just had one of its worst quarters ever — sales declined 23 percent to $3 billion, same-store sales fell 22 percent and internet sales sank 33 percent to $220 million. It's all the fault of CEO Ron Johnson, who embarked on a disastrous relaunch of the company in January which confused consumers and drove them away from its stores. On his conference call with Wall Street analysts, Johnson described his vision for getting the chain back on track in the remaining months of the year.