Republic of Ireland

eBay has hired two executives to head marketing and to recruit retail businesses in the UK. Tanya Lawler is Vice President of UK Trading, and Amanda Metcalfe is UK and Republic of Ireland Marketing Director. Lawler's position is a new role created at eBay.co.uk to develop its customer strategy and drive growth in eBay's retail brand business, according to the company's announcement. She was previously Director of Digital and Cross-Channel at Sainsbury's, and was also Group Commercial Director at Argos and Vice President of Retail at Capgemini. Lawler will be responsible for developing a customer strategy in order to

Genesco announced that it has acquired Schuh Group, a specialty retailer of casual and athletic footwear based in the United Kingdom. The purchase price was $159 million. Headquartered in Scotland, Schuh operates 59 stores in the U.K. and Ireland, 16 concessions in Republic apparel stores and one of the U.K.'s largest online shoe websites.

Gap announced the launch of its dedicated European e-commerce site for Gap and Banana Republic. Following the initial launch for U.K. consumers, the company plans to offer shipping to customers in an additional nine countries this fall, including Belgium; Denmark; France; Germany; Republic of Ireland; Italy; Netherlands; Spain; and Sweden.During second quarter 2010, Gap expanded its e-commerce reach from one country to 55 through international shipping. This is in addition to the dedicated e-commerce sites launched earlier this week in Canada and today in the United Kingdom.By the end of the year, the company expects to have stores in