Staples Inc. plans to open an e-commerce and engineering “Development Center” in Seattle. The move follows the office supply chain’s 2012 opening of its similar Velocity Lab in the Boston area, an effort featured in the most recent issue of Internet Retailer magazine.

The Seattle office, scheduled to open in the “coming months,” will focus on such areas as “next generation digital platforms, personalization and big data,” the retail chain says. Staples also says that as it continues to tie together its stores with the web and mobile channels, it plans to hire software development, product management, usability, analytics and online merchandising workers.

“Seattle is an innovation hub rivaling Silicon Valley and features some of the world’s biggest technology companies,” says Faisal Masud, executive vice president, global e-commerce, Staples. “Staples’ new Development Center will allow us to tap into the wide range of talented engineering and e-commerce professionals on the West Coast.”

Staples is No. 2 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. The leading e-retailer in that research-and-rankings guide, Amazon.com Inc., is among the technology and e-commerce firms located in the Seattle area. Staples says it will have formal recruiting days in Seattle later this month, Sept. 26 and 27.

Other retail chains also have opened technology centers designed to beef up their web programs. Those chains include Target Corp., No. 18 in the Top 500, which located its office in San Francisco. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., No. 4, put its e-commerce headquarters in the Silicon Valley corridor south of San Francisco, opening an office in San Bruno, CA.