Marketing Tactics

Portland, Maine -- CashStar found in its latest survey that nearly 56 million adult online Americans are likely to forget to buy a gift for their mail carriers and nearly 44 million are likely to forget to buy a gift for their neighbors.

The survey, conducted online nationwide by Harris Interactive on behalf of CashStar, examined when online American adults remember to buy gifts and who they end up forgetting.

Time is running out to submit entries in the 31st annual Chain Store Age Retail Store of the Year Design Competition.

Houston -- Francesca's Holdings Corp. reported Wednesday net income of $11 million, compared with $6.1 million in the year-ago period. Sales surged 44% to $72 million, driven by a 16.7% increase in same-store sales as well as 76 new boutique openings since the end of the third quarter last year.

Chicago -- A report on Wednesday from ShopperTrak showed that retail foot traffic increased 3.7% and sales increased 2.3% year-over-year for the week beginning Nov. 25, ending Dec. 1.

This represented a 28.8% decline in traffic and 22.4% decline in sales from the 2012 Black Friday shopping week.  

New York -- As new CEO Ron Johnson works to transition the “old” J.C. Penney into a new era filled with shop-in-shops, he and his team have devised a way to keep the store looking fresh during the changeover: they use a lot of mannequins.

Read full story here.

Washington, DC — Merchants at CVS, Smart & Final and Meijer have been named recipients of the 2013 Confectionery Leadership Awards by the National Confectioners Association.

Reston, Va. -- Online holiday spending reached $21.4 billion for first 32 days of the November-December shopping season, up 14% year-over-year, according to comScore.

The most recent week saw three individual days eclipse $1 billion in spending, led by Cyber Monday, which became the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.46 billion. However, growth rates softened considerably in the wake of Cyber Monday and through the weekend.       

Richardson, Texas -- Chain restaurant Wingstop announced Tuesday it has executed a master development deal that will facilitate about 50 unit openings in Russia, the first opening in Moscow.

The chicken wing purveyor -- with more than 530 locations throughout the U.S. and Mexico -- signed a master development agreement with Baxtor Limited for 50 Wingstop restaurants to be opened throughout Russia over the next 10 years.

The first location is expected to open in Moscow by the end of 2013.