Winter Holidays

For the second consecutive quarter, Toys “R” Us has delivered positive comparable store net sales results in its U.S. and international segments.

After several years of market weakness, the company’s international business as whole has begun to rebound, driven primarily by net sales increases in Japan and the U.K. Business in China and Southeast Asia remains strong, as the company continues its expansion in that region.

Harrisburg, Pa. -- The Shoppes at Susquehanna Marketplace, in Susquehanna Township, Pennsylvania, is celebrating its 10th anniversary by adding dining, spa services and two in-demand retailers, announced The Shoppes’ owner and developer, Stanbery Development.

For retailers looking to provide an optimal customer experience to harried holiday shoppers, live chat is more than a nice extra.

“Customer expectations today make live chat a necessity; more and more customers are demanding this channel to interact with brands since it’s a convenient and efficient means of getting assistance online,” said Milton Pappas, president of e-commerce for White Plains, New York-based Nine West Group, which operates 183 Nine West stores, 78 Easy Spirit stores and 88 JNY stores in the United States.

Shortly before the 2013 holiday period, Nine West

While holiday forecasts are just starting to come out, most industry experts agree that retailers can expect mobile to command a bigger share of online shopping. Forrester projects $294 billion in e-commerce sales across 30 retail categories in 2014, with $87 billion of the total occurring on phones and tablets in 2014. A report by IBM forecasts that mobile will account for more than 20% of site sales and more than 43% of site traffic, by November 2014.

“Mobile should be a primary purchase channel within a few years,” said Bill Davis, director of MB&G Consulting.

As the holiday season approaches, many retailers will ramp up their staff to accommodate the increase in customers and other operational demands. However, in today’s era of widespread employment litigation, employers must be even more conscientious of the legal liabilities and practical consequences they face during this time of year.

Despite the fast-paced nature of the holiday rush, companies should still conduct their due diligence when screening new employees, whether they are long-term or seasonal.

Earlier promotional shift, late Hanukkah to affect shopping season

With each passing year, it seems like the twinkly lights, newspaper inserts and door busters galore start earlier and earlier. The 2014 holiday season will be no different. As stores pull out all the stops to offer holiday promotions as early as possible this upcoming season, consumers will continue to shift their shopping dollars to November.

When the clock strikes midnight on Halloween, it will kick off the official holiday shopping season, which is measured from Nov.

Everyone knows that stores need extra staff during the holiday shopping rush, but there is a big difference between carefully scheduling employees when and where they are needed and simply adding bodies to a store’s headcount. San Francisco-based beauty retailer Sephora has come up with a solution: The company is expanding its use of the Ceridian Dayforce workforce management platform to adjust holiday staffing according to both historical sales data and current trends.

“We forecast the entire quarter’s sales and payroll,” explained Gino Filice, IT manager of Sephora.

With some 3,200 franchised, independently owned and corporate stores, the fast-growing Danish jewelry retailer Pandora needs to ensure customer relationship management (CRM) consistency throughout its operation — especially during the heavily promotional holiday season. It does so by using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system and a retail portal based on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.