Strategy

When it comes to return policies, Nordstrom and Forever 21 couldn’t be further apart.

At least that’s according to an annual survey of return policies by GOBankingRates.com. The study rated Nordstrom as offering the best return policies of 2015, with Forever 21 offering the worst.

“Return policies should be a big consideration for holiday shoppers — two-thirds of people return at least one holiday gift,” said Elyssa Kirkham, lead reporter on the GOBankingRates study.

How will retailers fare in 2016? Very well, according to experienced market watchers.

“We expect core retail sales to grow 5.3% in 2016,” says Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics for Moody’s Analytics, a research firm based in West Chester, Pa. (Core retail sales exclude volatile revenues from auto sales and gas stations.)

That is notably faster than the 4.2% rate anticipated when 2015 sales are finally tallied. The 2015 experience was, again, slightly better than that the 3.9% growth of 2014.

When it comes to return policies, Nordstrom and Forever 21 couldn’t be further apart.

It’s official: Smart & Final Stores is acquiring 32 Haggen stores in Central and Southern California.

Thanksgiving may be over, but it is worth watching a video of how Meijer made a difference in the lives of hundreds of customers and employees ahead of the holiday and in the process earned itself immeasurable goodwill.

A four-year, $400 million upgrade has transformed Macy’s Herald Square flagship. But for all the modernization, there is a signature element of the store that remains as is: the Otis wooden escalators—20 in all— that have been in operation for as long as 95 years.

Just in time for Black Friday, Structube, a leading Canadian retailer of modern furniture, has launched its e-commerce site in the United States.

In addition to its online platform, Structube, which operates 47 stores in Canada, plans to open stores across the United States, starting in 2016.

Structube specializes in contemporary style furniture, and offers “high style/low priced” pre-assembled and easy-to-assemble products. The company says it caters to young professionals, condo dwellers and small businesses.

Online retailer Jet.com has secured an additional $350 million in funding and joined the ranks of startup unicorns whose valuation exceeds $1 billion.

The parent company of Zales and Jared is looking forward to a happy holiday after producing third quarter results that met the company’s growth targets.

In addition to the requisite comment about expecting the holidays to be highly promotional, Famous Footwear also expects the momentum it saw during back-to-school season to carry over to the fourth quarter.

Famous Footwear’s third quarter same store sales increased 4.4% and total sales increased 4.8% to $456 million, excluding the performance of the divested Shoes.com business, to represent 63% of parent company Caleres total sales of $728.6 million. Caleres is the company formerly known as Brown Shoe Company that changed its name earlier this year.