Research Topic

Traffic trends at Walmart and other major retailers declined in December even though e-commerce sales set new records in the fourth quarter and throughout 2012.

CHICAGO — Most Valentine's Day celebrants plan to shop a week or less before the holiday, and many wait until Feb. 13 or 14 to make their final purchases, according to research by the NPD Group, a leading global information company.

Philadelphia -- A post-holiday e-commerce report released Friday by technology company Monetate said that, on Christmas Day 2012, 16% of all e-commerce traffic came from smartphones and 15.6% came from tablets, a marked upswing from a year earlier when just 6.4% came from smartphones and 8% from tablets.

New York -- A report released Thursday by the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries and the International Council of Shopping Centers said that the U.S. shopping center industry’s net operating income for the fourth quarter continued to show a strong gain nationally, rising 4.3% year-over-year.  

Total operating income of all U.S. shopping centers on a square foot basis rose 3.6% over the year-ago period.

For all of 2012, the U.S. shopping-center industry posted a 3.6% rise in NOI.

Oak Brook, Ill. -- McDonald's Corp. reported Friday that global same-store sales decreased 1.9% in January, hurt by weakened performance outside the U.S.

By segment, comps in the U.S. rose 0.9%, but decreased 2.1% in Europe and dropped 9.5% in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa.
 
Systemwide sales for the month increased 0.3%, or 0.7% in constant currencies.

NEW YORK — Despite nearly half of shoppers using social media every day, less than one-fifth shop through them, according to a new study by PwC.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Limited Brands reported that comparable-store sales for the fourth quarter were up 5% and that net sales for the same period were $3.86 billion compared with $3.5 billion for the same period last year.

For the month of February, the company posted sales of $986.4 million compared with $774.5 million for the same period last year. Same-store sales for the month rose 9%. 

Online sales returned to pre-recession growth levels in 2012, advancing 15% to a record $186.2 billion, according to a year end recap by online measurement firm comScore.

Austin, Texas -- Online coupon site RetailMeNot.com reported Thursday that men outspend women by more than $120 on Valentine’s Day gift giving.

According to the just-released results of the Valentine edition of RetailMeNot.com’s Shoppers Trend Report, the average person in a relationship plans to spend $226 for Valentine’s Day this year; the break-out is dominated by men, however, as they plan to spend $287 versus women at $164.

Denton, Texas -- Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. reported Thursday that profit in the first quarter nearly doubled year-over-year – from $30.1 million to $59 million – but results still missed Wall Street expectations.

Revenue rose 4.7% to $905.4 million, shy of analysts’ expected $915.1 million in revenue.

Same-store sales rose 2.8%.