Wal-Mart

Target has the strongest consumer brand equity among retail brands, and was named as the 2011 Harris Poll EquiTrend Value Retail Brand of the Year. This is the second consecutive year Target has led the way in the category, with the gap between runner-up Wal-Mart increasing.

The Olsen twins are entering the e-commerce style world. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen will help design T-shirts for StyleMint, an online recommendation/subscription site set to launch this July.

As the economic recovery gains steam, the retail industry is expected to be one of the strongest for job growth this decade. But the quality of jobs selling clothes, computers and other goods has declined in recent years to the point where few can be classified as careers. 

At a time momentum is building to allow foreign players into front-end retail, senior officials of the Future Group and Wal-Mart have met at least five times in the past four months, raising the possibility of an alliance between India's largest retailer and the world's largest retailer. If the alliance fructifies, it could reconfigure organized retail in India.

Wal-Mart announced that it will reopen 12 of its Seiyu stores in Japan, which were affected by the earthquake. A company spokesman added that the retailer is hoping to open the remaining 12 impacted stores as soon as possible.

The more active a brand is on Facebook, the better chance consumers will "Like" it. This was the key finding from a recent study on retailers' growth on Facebook and Twitter conducted by marketing agency Media Logic. However, a follow-up study released this month shows that the majority of brands on Facebook saw their growth on the social media site lose steam as the holiday season came and went.

Think big — really big — and you may understand the stakes in an upcoming Supreme Court case that could have a profound impact on nearly every American business with employees.

A new Quinnipiac University poll finds that New Yorkers would shop at Wal-Mart if one opened in the city and if it were convenient for them. That's compared with 29 percent who said they wouldn't.

Tax-free shopping is under threat for many online shoppers as states facing widening budget gaps increasingly pressure Amazon and other internet retailers to start collecting sales taxes from their residents. Billions of dollars are at stake as a growing number of states look for ways to generate more revenue without violating a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits a state from forcing businesses to collect sales taxes unless the business has a physical presence, such as a store, in that state.

Wal-Mart, Target and other large retailers are ratcheting up a political campaign to force Amazon to collect sales taxes, sensing opportunity in the budget crises gripping statehouses nationwide. The big-box stores are backing a coalition called the Alliance for Main Street Fairness, which is leading efforts to change sales-tax laws in more than a dozen states including Texas and California.