Winter Holidays

Little Rock, Ark. – Dillard’s Inc. reported declining net income for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2014. Compared to the same period a year earlier, Dillard’s reported a 26% decline in net income to $119.1 million from $161.4 million.

Net sales in the fourth quarter declined 3% to $2.03 billion from $2.1 billion, and same-store sales grew 2%. During the fiscal year, net income dropped about 4% to $323.7 million from $336 million, and net sales slightly declined to $6.53 billion from $6.59 billion. Same-store sales rose 1%.

San Jose, Calif. – Sales for Valentine’s Day this year fell prior to the holiday compared to the same period in 2013, but rose on the actual holiday itself, Feb. 14. According to new figures from site analytics provider RetailNext, men’s stores (that have gifts for men) saw decreased (-13.8%) sales the day before Valentine’s, but an increase of +22.2% in sales on Valentine's Day itself in 2014.

Severe weather in the fourth quarter did not prevent Conn’s from reaching its sales objectives, but increases in wholesale television prices affected electronics sales.

A highly fragmented market and inconsistent customer demand — thanks, in large part, to inclement weather — were not enough to dampen Lumber Liquidators’ results in the fourth quarter.

The company achieved record highs for net sales and operating margin and continues to gain further traction in its key, multi-year strategic initiatives.

For the quarter, net income increased 50.6% to $20.8 million, from $13.8 million in the fourth quarter of the prior year.

Washington, D.C. - More Americans this year are expected to put their tax returns in the bank. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF)’s Tax Returns Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, 46% of those expecting a refund this year will put their money into savings, up from 44% last year and the highest percent in the survey’s history.

New York – 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. reportedly had a difficult time meeting customer demand for Valentine’s Day. According to CNN, the retailer has sent apologies via Twitter and Facebook to roughly 1,000 customers for deliveries that were late, missing or damaged.

Research Triangle Park, N.C. -- CrossView, a provider of cross-channel commerce and retail solutions, announced that it is using technology from IBM's Smarter Commerce portfolio to help premier confectioner, Lindt Chocolate, deliver personalized shopping experiences, increase online conversion rates and grow mobile sales.  

New York – Consumers are increasingly performing omni-channel shopping, and prefer personalized offers across the different channels they shop. According to a new survey of more than 1,000 online consumers from retail personalization technology vendor Synqera, U.S. consumers still prefer promotional content and coupons from traditional print media (magazine, newsletter/flyer, newspaper) (75%), found online (72%), or received after a purchase (62%) for future shopping.