Budgets/Spending/Market Size

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in August 2012 versus August 2013 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. A home improvement promotional arms race between Home Depot and Lowe’s appears to be taking place: Lowe’s saw year-over-year increases of 100%, 75% and 184.4% across circular page count, ad block per page count and ad block per circular count, respectively. Despite these large gains, Lowe’s still appears to be playing catch-up to Home Depot, which continued to run more ad blocks per page and per circular than Lowe’s.

Minneapolis -- Christopher & Banks Corp. reported a loss of $265,000 for the quarter ended Aug. 4, narrowed from a $2.2 million loss in the year-ago period. Sales edged up 1% to $104.2 million from $103.4 million, and same-store sales climbed 7.7%.

Under the leadership of CEO LuAnn Via, the company is in the early stages of a turnaround, with store openings on tap for both fiscal 2013 and a longer-term three-year period.

Import volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to grow 5.1% in September over the same month last year as retailers head into the holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation. 

U.S. ports followed by the monthly Global Port Tracker report, released by the NRF and Hackett Associates, handled 1.43 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in July, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available.

Philadelphia -- Five Below saw net income surge to $4.1 million for the quarter ended August 3, up from $1.2 million in the year-ago period. Sales climbed 34.9% to $117.1 million from $86.8 million, and same-store sales increased 6.6%. The company had, by the quarter’s end, opened 32 of its previously announced 60 new stores on tap for 2013.

Washington, D.C. - Import volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to grow 5.1% in September over the same month last year as retailers head into the holiday season. U.S. ports followed by the monthly Global Port Tracker report, released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates, handled 1.43 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in July, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available.

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation confirmed that the retail industry added 43,600 jobs last month, particularly in general merchandise, electronics and clothing.

The numbers were based on calculations from the NRF, out of a total 169,000 jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the economy added in August, bringing the country's unemployment rate down to 7.3%.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation calculated retail industry job gains at 43,600 in August, with marked increases in clothing, general merchandise and electronics stores.
 

A survey of consumers conducted by the National Retail Federation and published in the trade group’s September issue of Stores placed Walmart second on a list of the nation’s favorite e-commerce retailers, an encouraging sign given the company’s efforts to drive digital growth.