Walmart, Nike, Target, JC Penney, Levi's and fellow members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition have unveiled the group's index for measuring the environmental impact of apparel products across the supply chain.

Cybra, a barcode and RFID software provider, has announced the results of a survey illustrating that the use of radio frequency identification has increased significantly during the past four years. Specifically, the number of responding companies that indicated they were using the technology rose by 157 percent since a similar survey carried out in 2008. The study was conducted with 153 businesses, about half of which were Cybra customers.

Hallmark Cards Inc. selected Fujitsu to provide a cloud-based, retail-as-a-service (RaaS) solution for its more than 2,500 independent retailers and corporate stores in the U.S. Hallmark and its independent retailers will use a monthly subscription model to cover a combination of Fujitsu TeamPoS and third-party hardware, software, support, maintenance and data center hosting services. The contract calls for the solution to be deployed over the next three years.

Putting aside their big-box ways, giant retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. are going urban with a new look and a metro-oriented feel as they expand in Southern California.

A newly-designed Office Depot store in Portland, Ore., will be the country's first to offer products bearing the EcoSense label for electronic merchandise.

Manufacturing in July expanded at its slowest pace since late 2010, hobbled by weak overseas demand for American goods, though a rise in domestic orders helped cushion the blow.

Walmart was sued July 25 by a California advocacy group for the disabled, who complained that the retail giant isn't meeting federal or state laws because its PIN pads are too high for customers in wheelchairs to use.