Winter Holidays

Lowe's rode the same wave of recovery in the housing market as its rival Home Depot in the fourth quarter, topping its own expectations with substantial gains.

Macy’s says cold weather in January helped the retailer report a better than expected decrease in same store sales for the fourth quarter even as the company explores an expansion of its off-price and beauty formats.

For the period ended Jan. 30, same store sales fell 4.3%, slightly less than the 4.7% fall it had estimated. Total sales declined to $8.87 billion.

Cold weather in January helped Macy’s report a decline in same-store sales for the fourth quarter that was less than analysts had expected. In other news, the chain announced plans to expand its off-price and specialty beauty formats.

For the period ended Jan. 30, Macy's net income fell 31% to $543 million, dragged down by store closings and other costs.

Adjusted profits were $2.09 per share, better than the $1.86 per share estimate from analysts, according to Zacks Investment Research,

The CEO of Cabela’s, Tommy Millner, said warm winter weather hampered same-store sales in the fourth quarter, but he did not provide details about any potential sale of the company.

Photo: Doug McMillon, president and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Luxury dinnerware retailer Lenox is enjoying a feast of e-commerce delights with the aid of Oracle Commerce technology.

Lenox boosted e-commerce sales 26% during the 2015 holiday season compared to the two previous holiday seasons after deploying Oracle Commerce solutions that improved areas such as search results, recommendations, and targeted promotions. At the beginning of the holiday season, Lenox began targeting promotions for customer segments and launching more complex pricing strategies.

The offices of Retailing Today will be closed on Monday, Feb. 15,  for President's Day, and the RT Daily Edition will not publish. RT will resume normal business hours on Tuesday, Feb. 16.

Same store sales literally fell off a cliff at Citi Trends in the waning days of the fourth quarter and the operator of 522 urban fashion stores is attributing the weakness to the federal government.

A combined 7.1% same-store sales decline at Sear and Kmart stores in the fourth quarter has parent company Sears Holdings vowing to undertake a wide range expense reduction and cash generating moves, including more store closings and asset sales.

A high single digit decline in retail traffic in November and early December caused retailers to cut orders of HanesBrands products, but not enough to keep the leading apparel suppliers from posting impressive profit growth and its third consecutive year of record sales.

HanesBrand’s fourth quarter sales woes highlight the weather related difficulties experienced by retailers, the negative effect on traffic and the subsequent margin pressure that was created as retailers had to intensify promotional activity to move merchandise.