Budgets/Spending/Market Size

More Americans were online in September, and traffic to such major retail sites as Amazon.com and Walmart.com increased, but Target.com traffic was flat in the first full month following a late August site relaunch, according to the most recent “Top 50 Web Properties” report from online measurement firm comScore.

New York City -- VF Corp. reported that its third-quarter net income rose 24% on higher prices and sales, and raised its full-year outlook and quarterly dividend.

The clothing and footwear company said profit growth came from its September acquisition of Timberland and strong sales across most of its categories. 
 

Los Angeles -- Fifty-two percent of consumers plan to spend $500 or more on gifts this season, according to a new survey by PriceGrabber, a part of Experian. Thirty-six percent said they will spend less than $500, and 12% indicated that they do not have a budget.

Other key findings of the survey, conducted from Sept. 7-15, 2011, include:

Consumers overwhelmingly chose clothing as the most popular holiday gift purchase (chosen by 66%), followed by gift cards (52%), books, CDs, DVDs or videogames (46%) and toys (43%).

PHILADELPHIA — Shoplifting, employee or supplier fraud, organized retail crime and administrative errors cost the retail industry $41.7 billion in the United States in 2011, representing 1.6% in sales, according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer released Tuesday by Checkpoint Systems. Of that, $18.4 billion was attributed to employee theft, $14.9 billion to shoplifters, $6.6 billion to internal error and $1.8 billion to suppliers.

WASHINGTON — It looks like this year's holiday shoppers have a renewed focus on value and will comparison shop by utilizing smartphones, tablets and mobile applications to make purchasing decisions, according to the latest National Retail Federation Survey.

WASHINGTON — It looks like this year's holiday shoppers have a renewed focus on value and will comparison shop by utilizing smartphones, tablets and mobile applications to make purchasing decisions, according to the latest National Retail Federation Survey.

Competing with Walmart is nothing new for Target, but what appears to be different this holiday season compared with the last few years is, to borrow a football metaphor, Walmart has eliminated its turnovers and is now showing some signs of momentum.

At least that’s what the retailer told financial analysts gathered in Northwest Arkansas last week for an all-day meeting. 

Arlington, Va. -- With the presidential campaign in full swing and discussion of a new national sales tax as a component to tax reform being discussed, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) reiterated the strong opposition of the retail community to any sort of national sales tax or Value Added Tax (VAT).

Commerce, Calif. -- 99 Cents Only Stores reported Friday that same-store sales for the second quarter rose 6.7%. The news comes just days after the discounter agreed to a $1.6 billion buyout by private equity firm Ares Management LLC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Total revenue for the quarter ended Oct. 1 rose 8.8% to $363 million.