Wal-Mart

Retail stocks rose after the Commerce Department reported the biggest monthly retail sales increase since March, giving an encouraging note as the industry readies for its biggest selling period.

Wal-Mart Purchasing Chief Hernan Muntaner has a dream: teaming the giant retailer with soda and snack maker Pepsi to buy potatoes jointly for a lower price than either company can get on its own. That would allow both to earn more money on the chips and spuds they sell in Wal-Mart's supermarkets. So far, Pepsi isn't playing along.

Starting today, Walmart plans to offer free shipping on its website, with no minimum purchase on almost 60,000 gift items, including many toys and electronics. The offer will run through Dec. 20, when Walmart said it might consider other free-shipping deals.

While Wal-Mart and Target fight over toys, retail consultant Howard Davidowitz says the outcome of their battle will be decided in the electronics section, not the toy aisle.

The advent of new technologies has forever changed the way consumers shop. Today, consumers routinely research, purchase, ship and return products across all 
channels. They're using mobile devices, phones, websites, email, stores and catalogs in whichever combination is the most convenient for them.

The year’s most popular discount shopping event, referring to the Friday after Thanksgiving, is arriving ahead of Halloween this year, with some promotions beginning this week and others throughout November.

In a post on its Facebook page, Wal-Mart launched the deals app Crowdsaver, which unlocks a discount once enough consumers opt in - much like the group deals phenomenon the start-up Groupon has made popular in recent months.

Target has reconfigured its smaller stores to fit its P-fresh format, introduced earlier in the year. The new stores will feature 90 percent of the categories found at a SuperTarget, but with much less of a selection.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is adding thousands of items to its shelves, including inexpensive ones, and is asking dollar-store suppliers to create small, under-a-dollar packages for its stores, too. In areas with high unemployment, Wal-Mart is grouping together its less than $1 items in a clear challenge to the dollar stores.

Wal-Mart is experimenting with allowing customers to buy merchandise online and have it delivered free to urban FedEx locations, a bid to boost sales in big cities where the retailer has little to no store presence.