Amazon: The retailer will close all 68 of its Amazon Books, Amazon 4-Star and Pop Up brick-and-mortar stores in order to focus on its grocery-oriented Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market and Amazon Go stores and the new Amazon Style apparel stores. The first Amazon Books, pictured at top, opened in Seattle’s University Village in 2015. The closing of these 68 experimental stores won't have a big impact on the economics of the company, which has $96 million in cash on its balance sheet, but the move should give competitive relief to rival physical booksellers, such as Barnes & Noble.

Aurate: The direct-to-consumer jewelry brand is returning to the physical expansion plans it set aside because of the pandemic. Aurate will open stores in New York and San Francisco this spring after shuttering its two permanent locations in 2021.

Brilliant Earth: The digitally native fine jewelry company will open its 16th store, at Easton in Columbus, Ohio. The company, which specializes in ethically sourced jewelry, already has stores in Austin, Texas; Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Los Angeles; New York City; Philadelphia; Portland, Oregon; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; and Washington, D.C.

Culture Kings: A.K.A., an accelerator of direct-to-consumer fashion brands, signed a lease to open its first U.S. store for Culture Kings in late 2022, at The Forum Shops at Caesars in Las Vegas. Culture Kings is an Australia-based streetwear lifestyle brand that blends music, sports and fashion. The brand operates eight stores in Australia and New Zealand. The stores’ nightclub vibe, promoted events and in-store gamification encourages customers to post on social media, generating viral hype that drives traffic both in-store and online. The two-story location will include merchandise from third-party brands, as well as proprietary merchandise.

Nordstrom: The department store chain has gotten more of its online customers to pick up their orders in stores, a trend that bodes well for both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar, CEO Erik Nordstrom said on a fourth-quarter earnings call. Customers picked up a record 11% of Nordstrom.com sales at physical stores in the fourth quarter. They picked up one-third of next-day Nordstrom.com orders at the company’s off-price, Nordstrom Rack stores. “This growth demonstrates the power of integrating capabilities across banners and across digital and physical platforms,” he said. Customers who use in-store pickup spend three-and-a-half times more than customers who don't use the service, he added. “Increasing buy-online-pick-up-in-store utilization is advantageous, as it is both our highest-satisfaction customer experience and most profitable customer journey.”

GSTQ: The direct-to-consumer lifestyle and apparel brand will operate a 2,500-square-foot pop-up in New York City’s SoHo in March. The brand plans to follow it with more pop-ups around the country this year.

Ross Stores: Favorable sales trends have led the discounter to expand its store count potential from 2,400 to 2,900. “We achieved strong sales results in the fourth quarter despite the negative impact from both the surge in omicron cases during the peak holiday selling period and continued supply chain congestion,” CEO Barbara Rentler said on an earnings call.

Target: The chain plans to add 250 or more Ulta Beauty shops within its stores this year. Since August, Target has opened 101 such locations, as well as an Ulta Beauty store on its website. Target said traffic, awareness and loyalty have increased at stores that have Ulta Beauty shops. Target also will invest as much as $5 billion in physical, digital, fulfillment and supply chain operations in 2022. It will open 30 new stores this year and renovate 200 existing stores top to bottom.

Walmart: The giant retailer wants to devote more of its store square footage to fulfillment of online orders via automated “market fulfillment centers.” MFC inventory is separate from the store’s inventory, allowing Walmart to tailor services for each online and in-store customers, the company said. In the past year, it boosted by 170% the number of online orders being fulfilled from stores instead of warehouses. And it plans to increase pickup and delivery capacity by 35% at its 4,700 U.S. stores this year.

Oxxo: Mexican conglomerate FEMSA plans to grow its portfolio of convenience stores by 50% across Latin America over the next decade, including hundreds of new Oxxo stores in Brazil, Chile and Colombia in 2022. FEMSA operates 20,431 Oxxo stores in Latin America.

Wegmans: The upscale supermarket announced plans for its first Connecticut store. The retailer will redevelop a former office building on 11 acres in Norwalk to accommodate a 95,000-square-foot store. Wegmans has 106 stores in seven states.