Winter Holidays

If this past holiday season was any indication, American consumers can expect to receive even more email from retailers in the coming year as improved targeting has increased the efficacy of the marketing tactic.

Dillard’s Inc. is giving more than $850,000 to local Chapters of Ronald McDonald House Charities after selling its exclusive Southern Living Christmas Cookbook.

For the eighth time, Dillard’s offered a special custom edition of the Southern Living Christmas Cookbook to benefit RMHC. This exclusive, 288-page hardbound cookbook is filled with fabulous holiday recipes, color photos, menus, decorating tips and entertaining ideas.

The National Retail Federation confirmed what many retailers already knew and made a downward revision to a holiday forecast that initially called for 3.7% growth.
 
Citing what it called “unforeseen events,” the National Retail Federation (NRF) said sales during November and December increased 3% to $626 billion, down from an earlier forecast which envisioned growth of 3.7%.   
 

The National Retail Federation confirmed what many retailers already knew and made a downward revision to a holiday forecast that initially called for 3.7% growth.

Citing what it called “unforeseen events,” the National Retail Federation (NRF) said sales during November and December increased 3% to $626 billion, down from an earlier forecast which envisioned growth of 3.7%.

It was a big season for online retailers. From November through December 2015, the final sales tally exceeded $83 billion (12.7% more than the year before). Cyber Monday alone ended up being the single largest online shopping day in history, generating over $3 billion in sales.

Holiday sales declined at Best Buy and the company reduced earlier guidance even though CEO Hubert Joly said the company’s seasonal strategy was well-executed. What’s up with that?

In fact, lackluster consumer interest in electronics led Best Buy to report a decline in same store sales of 1.4% over the nine week period ended Jan. 2. Revenue declined .8%.

Toys “R” Us says its annual nationwide fundraising campaign to benefit the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation raised more than $5.8 million and collected over 200,000 toys.

During the 2015 campaign, customers helped bring holiday joy to some of the 15.5 million kids in need across the U.S. by donating new, unwrapped toys at Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us stores nationwide and through monetary contributions made in stores and online at Toysrus.com/ToysforTots.

Big 5 Sporting Goods had a lackluster fourth quarter despite saying that cold weather in its Western markets drove strong traffic during the holidays.

For the fourth quarter ended Jan. 3, the company reported that net sales were $275 million, compared to net sales of $250.3 million for the 13-week fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. Same-store sales increased 0.1%. For the full year, net sales were $1.03 billion, compared to net sales of $977.9 million for the 52-week fiscal 2014 full year. Same store sales increased 1.3% for the fiscal 2015 full year.