Walmart sets plans for 3rd-party sellers
Walmart Inc. is working with its third-party online sellers to offer free two-day shipping on millions of products and make it easier for shoppers to return them.
Scott Hilton, chief revenue officer for Walmart e-commerce U.S., said in a blog post Tuesday that online shoppers will see the free two-day shipping label on more marketplace items "in coming months." The Bentonville retailer already offers free shipping on orders of $35 or more on products it sells directly.
Rival Amazon.com offers free two-day shipping on many third-party items to members of Amazon Prime, which costs $119 a year.
Shoppers wishing to return merchandise purchased from third-party sellers can now print return labels from their Walmart.com accounts. Also, starting in mid-November, customers can take products packaged for return to the service desk in any of Walmart's 4,700 stores. The company will ship the package to the sellers, who will issue the refunds to the customers.
-- Serenah McKay
Integra Realty firm opens office in LR
Integra Realty Resources, which describes itself as the largest independent commercial real estate valuation firm in North America, has opened a Little Rock office.
Greg Jeffery, whose appraisal career spans 22 years, was named to lead a staff of four in an office at 8201 Ranch Blvd.
The company also announced the opening of an office in New Orleans.
John R. Praytor, executive director of Integra's network of Mid-South region offices, called the opening of the Little Rock and New Orleans offices a "natural evolution" for Integra.
"We've long served these markets from our other Mid-South regional offices, but both New Orleans and Little Rock are growing markets and the timing was right to expand," he said in a news release.
Integra specializes in real estate appraisals, feasibility studies, market studies, expert testimony and related property consulting services. It has more than 600 employees in the United States and the Caribbean.
-- Noel Oman
State index up 0.53 to close at 419.71
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, gained 0.53 to close at 419.71 Tuesday.
Total volume for the index was 24.9 million shares.
"After a steep opening selloff, stocks rebounded Tuesday, as investors worry about global economic growth and a couple of downbeat earnings outlooks from bellwether U.S. companies rippled across global markets," said Chris Harkins, managing director with Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 10/24/2018