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Online retail

How a Seattle retailer hopes to navigate an uncertain holiday season

by Mitchell Hartman
Dec 3, 2020
Sales estimates are all over the place. Small business owners are hoping to ride out the uncertainty.
Tom Butcher, right, and Cindy Reichel, left, co-owners of Patchwerks in Seattle. The four-year-old store and online business specializes in synthesizers and other electronic music instruments.
Image provided by Tom Butcher
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U.S. was top seller to China during Singles Day

by Jennifer Pak
Nov 12, 2020
But overall retail sales in China for the year are still down significantly due to the pandemic.
Workers sort packages for delivery at a warehouse of China Post Group in Hengyang, in central China's Hunan province on Nov. 12, 2020, a day after the end of the Singles Day shopping festival.
STR/AFP via Getty Images
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COVID-19

With stores closed, local bookstores lean on online sales

by Alli Fam and Maria Hollenhorst
Mar 31, 2020
At Bookshop.org, a platform for independent bookstores, sales are way up.
Keystone/Getty Images
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How Bath & Body Works is still going strong

by Marielle Segarra
Feb 24, 2020
The company is about to be the last retailer left at L Brands, which is selling Victoria's Secret.
Bath & Body Works is still able to cultivate an in-store experience.
Courtesy of L Brands
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Resellers find treasure in online returns

by Leila Goldstein
Aug 8, 2019
Ever wondered where your online returns go? They may be fueling new resale businesses.
Naveed Ahmed uses his living room to sort through returned merchandise from pallets he bids on online. He says he makes between $150 and $200 in profit on each pallet he buys.
Leila Goldstein/Marketplace
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What happens when a consumer giant like Edgewell buys a niche retailer like Harry's?

by Marielle Segarra
Jun 14, 2019
With deals like this, customers sometimes worry that the smaller brand will abandon its roots.
Edgewell is buying subscription razor company Harry’s. Above, English comic Benny Hill shaves at his flat in London in 1955.
John Pratt/Keystone Features/Getty Images
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What Blackstone's purchase of $18 billion worth of warehouse space tells us about e-commerce.

by Amy Scott
Jun 3, 2019
For online retailers, urban warehouses are the key to same-day delivery.
Packages are prepared for delivery at a warehouse in 2014.
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
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Cash-back shopping savings, but at what price?

by Rachel del Valle
May 24, 2019
Between the tendency to spend what’s recouped and the surrender of personal data, it’s worth thinking about the quid pro quo.
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Has Amazon reached a Prime plateau?

by Ben Bradford
Apr 25, 2019
The rate of membership growth in the U.S. has proven difficult to maintain.
Men work at a distribution station in the 855,000-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York, in February.
Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images
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Kohl's banks on Amazon returns to improve store traffic

by Ben Bradford
Apr 24, 2019
Kohl's is expanding a deal with Amazon that allows online shoppers to return their merchandise at Kohl's stores.
Customers enter a Kohl's store on August 21, 2018 in San Rafael, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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