Wal-Mart

Launched on June 23, 2009, as an online marketplace not unlike eBay, Alice.com enables CPG manufacturers to sell their household essentials — think toothpaste, laundry detergent, trash bags, toilet paper, etc. — direct to consumers. By making thousands of products typically not found online available for purchase, Alice.com has tapped into an underserved market, albeit surprisingly so to the company's founders.

Online fashion shopping sites like Gilt Groupe and Rue La La have been a hit with women since launching over the last three years. A new push to get men to shop in these web boutiques is proving more difficult.

With unemployment high and consumer confidence low, retailers are getting more creative to lure wary consumers. Grabbing shoppers from rivals is no easy task, but merchants are making a stab at innovative ways, beyond price cuts and low overhead, to lure consumers. Merchants have little choice now but to boost sales to keep profits up.

Retail sales fell in June for the second straight month, more evidence that the recovery will slow in the second half of the year. Spending on retail goods dropped 0.5 percent in June, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. That followed a 1.1 percent fall in May. Excluding autos, spending was down 0.1 percent in June. Pulling down the overall June figures was a drop in auto sales and declining gas prices. When taking those out, sales would have risen 0.1 percent for the month.

Walmart's strategy is evolving, and would have evolved regardless of what managers are in place. "Taking merchandise out of the Action Alley and providing clear sight lines has been a successful strategy," Spokesman David Tovar said in an e-mail, but added, "We are constantly listening to our customers and some have told us they liked seeing the rollbacks on merchandise in the aisles. .... We have given more autonomy to our store managers to make the decisions on what is right for their customers."

Getting credit is not always easy for new business owners, but now one very large business, Wal-Mart's Sam's Club division, is working to help members get loans of up to $25,000 through the Small Business Administration. What do you see as the pros and cons of Sam's involvement in helping club members apply and get SBA loans?

As Americans' love affair with shopping cools, retailers are venturing overseas in search of growth. Bloomingdale's and Crate & Barrel each opened their first store outside the U.S. in Dubai this year. Abercrombie & Fitch just opened its first store in London. Sears has begun shipping tools and clothing to 90 countries. Macy's is looking at going into China. And Target, the discount chain that for a decade has resisted Wall Street pressure to expand internationally, revealed this spring that it wants to open stores outside the U.S. and is looking at Canada, Mexico and Latin America.

) Wal-Mart Stores on Friday said its chief merchandising officer John Fleming is leaving the company on Aug. 1 after 10 years of service.

Wal-Mart launched a public-relations campaign ahead of a City Council committee vote later this week, vowing to build "several dozen stores" and create 12,000 jobs in Chicago over the next five years. The announcement was the first time Wal-Mart has provided specifics on its goals for store openings, job creation and tax revenue. But the City Council has yet to take any action on approving Chicago's second Wal-Mart store. Wal-Mart has been thwarted in its push to grow in Chicago for six years. A weakened economy and high unemployment rates have swayed dozens of ministers here to reverse their stance and start supporting the opening of Wal-Mart stores on the city's South Side.

Retailers stand to reap billions from the financial-overhaul legislation being finalized by Congress this week, possibly giving them a long-sought victory by slashing the "swipe fees" that credit-card companies charge merchants for every debit-card transaction. Members of the House and Senate announced an agreement Monday to include the debit-card fee cuts in the final version of the overhaul bill — a loss for the financial industry, which had mounted a furious campaign to eliminate or water down the proposed regulations.