Merchandising

Amazon.com is launching a home services marketplace that will connect customers with electricians, plumbers and painters in a move to have its services tied to every product sold on its website. Amazon Home Services, which launches today, will allow customers to buy 700 services such as car maintenance, TV wall-mounting and house cleaning at up-front prices. The quality of the service will be backed with an Amazon guarantee, which the retailer uses to vouch for products sold by third-party sellers on its website.

GameStop Corp., faced with a shrinking core business selling video games, is accelerating its effort to diversify by adding to its stores that offer AT&T Inc. wireless plans and acquiring other technology retail chains. The Grapevine, Texas-based company, which won court approval to take over 163 locations from bankrupt RadioShack Corp., is looking for acquisitions, Chief Operating Officer Tony Bartel said in an interview Thursday after reporting fourth-quarter results. The retailer is evolving into a holding company for a variety of store concepts, he said.

J.Crew failed at women's fashion last year, the company's chief executive admitted on Wednesday. CEO Mickey Drexler provided a candid assessment of what he described as a "lousy year" for J.Crew's women's business in a rare appearance on a conference call with analysts, after overall sales at the brand remained stagnant at around $621 million. "Fashion is guaranteed never to always be right," said Drexler, a veteran retail merchant famed for steering apparel giant Gap through its rise in the 1990s. "That's the only guarantee in my many years of doing this." 

Who's ready for an Apple Watch? It's Apple's first foray into a new product category since 2010's iPad, and its debut in the growing wearables market. The watch will be previewed Monday at a press event in San Francisco, starting at 1 p.m. ET. Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to lead the presentation, as he usually does, followed by other Apple execs, and developers who will present apps they've created for the watch.

Kate Spade has taken another step toward its goal of being the next Ralph Lauren by announcing new lines of furniture and home goods. On Tuesday, the company announced it's entering into four new licensing agreements to expand into furniture, bedding, bath, wallpaper, rugs and other household items. "The breadth of our home décor line will feature products at all access points in both pricing and distribution from an $8 notebook to an $8,000 piece of furniture," Kate Spade CEO Craig Leavitt said on a conference call with analysts on Tuesday.

Michael Kors, the accessible luxury retailer best known for its leather handbags, delivered the kind of earnings report Thursday that many retailers would consider the stuff of dreams: revenue soared nearly 30 percent and profit rocketed 24 percent in the most recent quarter. Sales at stores open more than a year increased 8.6 percent, and online sales rose 76 percent. However, investors looking toward the future are unimpressed, sending the company's stock down nearly 4 percent in morning trading. Kors went public in December 2011, and it was on a rocket ride from the start. 

Kohl's is teaming up with FitFluential to offer exclusive fitness-related social media content, including purchase tips, as part of its sponsorship of the The Color Run paint race. Kohl's will be the department store partner for The Color Run, enabling the retailer to serve as the packet pick-up destination for participants in more than 100 cities nationwide. The brand is also demonstrating its commitment to wellness by launching the Make Your Move initiative and encouraging social media users to follow the conversation via the #MakeYourMove hashtag as FitFluential bloggers offer tips for fitness and relevant purchases.

lululemon is training a whole new generation of yoga enthusiasts with a brand targeting girls as young as six. Ivivva Athletica, pronounced "ih - vee - va," will have 20 stores open by the end of the year. The brand is a bright spot for the company. Ivivva's same-store sales soared 37 percent in the most recent quarter, according to lululemon CEO Laurent Potdevin. During the same time period, sales at lululemon stores open at least a year fell 3 percent. 

Holiday shoppers would think a purchased Carmelo Anthony plush-doll would look like, well, Carmelo Anthony. If they bought it online at Wal-Mart, they'd be mistaken. The doll displayed at Walmart.com doesn't resemble the seven-time NBA All-Star and current New York Knick, but rather shares a remarkable likeness to Jeremy Lin. Although he once took a big spotlight for the New York team, Lin hasn't donned the New York Knickerbockers’ uniform since 2012. 

Anyone hoping to survive winter the quintessentially Boston way may be without one key item this shopping season — L.L.Bean's signature bean boots. Between 60,000-100,000 people have placed orders for the boots that won't be delivered until after the holidays, according to L.L.Bean Spokesperson Carolyn Beem. In all, the company said it anticipates selling "in the range" of 450,000 pairs of bean boots this year, a significant increase over last year. Why the increase in sales? Well, blame teens and millennials. "Younger people are buying them," Beem said. "They're all over college campuses and high schools."