OfficeMax Inc. is following the lead of major online retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Staples Inc. in opening up a dedicated hub where its data, technology and product experts craft e-retail and mobile commerce strategies.

The office supplies retailer, No. 11 in Internet Retailer’s 2013 Top 500 Guide, today announced its opening of the OfficeMax Digital Innovation Collaboration Center, which it also refers to as Digital IC².

Based in OfficeMax’s Naperville, IL, headquarters outside Chicago, the center features an open layout to facilitate collaboration and spark creativity, the retailer says.

“The new center is aimed at fostering the creativity, collaboration and real-time innovation needed to expedite the delivery of digital solutions that expand upon our multichannel capabilities to better serve the rapidly changing ways that customers shop,” says Ravi Saligram, the retailer’s president and CEO. 

The move comes as the office supplies chain is in the midst of merging with Office Depot. The deal is on track to close this year. The merger, announced in February, would yield a company with $7.2 billion in 2012 web sales, based on data in the 2013 Top 500 Guide.

OfficeMax rival Staples opened its first e-commerce center, called Velocity Lab, last year and announced plans this month to open an e-commerce and engineering “Development Center” in Seattle.