Retail roundup: GQ and Nordstrom, Google, Wal-Mart and Best Buy

--Luxury department store chain Nordstrom has teamed up with GQ magazine to market and sell products in an online store for men, a report says.

Starting with its July issue, GQ will highlight a few chosen items within the glossy folds of the magazine as a “GQ Selects” pick, and prompt readers to go online to buy it at the dedicated website nordstrommen.com, Women’s Wear Daily reported.

The initiative is part of an ongoing trend of fashion-oriented magazines collaborating with retailers to push products online and in-store. GQ has already dabbled in a similar project with Web retailer Park & Bond last year.

--Google Inc. will start charging merchants to feature products on its 10-year-old Shopping site as the tech giant seeks to increase revenue from its search engine.

Google Shopping was previously a free service that ranked items by popularity and price. Now online retailers will be required to bid -- and pay -- to display their goods on the e-commerce site.

“Google Shopping will empower businesses of all sizes to compete effectively -- and it will help shoppers turn their intentions into actions lightning fast,” Sameer Samat, a Google vice president, said in a statement.

--Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is rushing to replace Best Buy in markets where the electronics retailer is planning to close 50 of its super-sized stores.

The Bentonville, Ark., discount chain, which hosted its 50th annual shareholders meeting Friday, has swooped into some cities with ads wooing Best Buy shoppers, according to the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

“Did your local Best Buy just close?” asks one such ad, which appeared in the Star Tribune. “We have the top brands and low prices.”

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