Dive Brief:

• Framingham, Mass.-based Staples Inc. plans to close some 225 North American stores as part of an effort to cut costs by $500 million through 2015. Last year Staples shuttered 42 stores. No word on how many employees would be affected by the closures. 

• Half of Staples’ sales are now online, the company said. The largest office-supplies retailer has made recent moves to beef up its e-commerce and m-commerce platforms, areas where it's playing catchup.

• Amid fierce competition from Amazon and others, Staples has forecast falling revenues in Q1, which would be the fifth straight quarter of declining revenue.

Dive Insight:

Staples is the world’s largest office-supplies chain but continues to scale back as it struggles with falling sales and fierce competition. The company has been slow to optimize its web and mobile channels and is now quickly playing catchup — the website has been hard to navigate, no doubt sending customers to places like Amazon to get their toner ink more easily and more cheaply.