Happy Returns bar Ulta Beauty feature

Happy Returns Free for PayPal Checkout Merchants

| Mike O'Brien

PayPal is extending returns services through its Happy Returns unit for free to all PayPal Checkout merchant customers, while also naming Ulta Beauty as an in-store returns bar partner, adding 1,300 locations and bringing the total to more than 5k in the U.S. The returns portal is also localized to 8 languages for EU and Canada.

Sephora store feature

Sephora Expands Same-Day Delivery with Shipt

| Mike O'Brien

Sephora continues to expand same-day delivery to customers’ doors, providing service in as little as an hour thanks to a new partnership with delivery service Shipt, which is owned by Target. The major beauty retailer already has a same-day delivery partnership with Instacart, on top of its own Beauty on Demand service.

cyber weekend

Ecommerce Sets Records Over Cyber Weekend, Stores See Slight Declines

| Douglas P. Clement

Total ecommerce sales hit $26.93 billion over Cyber Weekend, according to data from Adobe Analytics, as stores went in the opposite direction. Cyber Monday’s online spending reached a record $9.4 billion, up 19.7%, making it the largest online shopping day of all time in the U.S. Store sales dipped nearly 1%, according to RetailNext.

Ulta Beauty Ecommerce Sales Up 38% in Q2

| Daniela Forte

Ulta Beauty saw a 37.9% increase in ecommerce sales in the second quarter, representing 9% of revenue. Total sales grew 15.4%, with comps up 6.5%, on top of 11.7% growth in the year-ago quarter. Here are some of the initiatives that led to Ulta Beauty’s ecommerce success in the second quarter.

Google Shopping

Amazon Suddenly Drops Out of Google Shopping PLAs

| Mike O'Brien

After testing the waters, Amazon has stopped bidding on product listing ads on Google Shopping, according to data from marketing agency Merkle, opening the door for home goods sellers in their absence. See what this decision means for sellers, and what might be behind it.

warehouse with forklift

Retail and Ecommerce Distribution Center Roundup

| Mike O'Brien

Amazon, Wayfair, Best Buy, Ulta Beauty and IKEA are among the major retailers announcing new distribution center or fulfillment center activity to meet consumer demand, in Multichannel Merchant’s periodic roundup of facilities news.