Winter Holidays

Barnes & Noble faces all the same headwinds as other retailers this holiday season, but its challenges are compounded by the fact that it continues to derive the majority of its revenues from declining sales of physical books.

The operator of 673 book stores said it expects holiday same store sales to decline in the high single digits following a 4.9% comp decrease during the second quarter ended October 26.
Total Barnes & Noble sales declined 8% to $1.7 billion with each of the company’s three segments reporting reduced sales.

Boston – College students are planning to buy holiday gifts that offer experiential value or economic flexibility and will frequent discount stores, according to a new survey of roughly 1,000 college students from consumer marketing firm Fluent.

New York – Barnes & Noble employed cost-cutting measures that shifted net loss to net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2014 even as net sales took a tumble. Net income of $13.2 million compared to a roughly $502 million net loss reported in the second quarter of fiscal 2013.

Online sales early this week were up nearly 12% from the equivalent Monday a year earlier. Data from the IBM Digital Analytics Holiday Benchmark shows that mobile traffic accounted for nearly 32% of all online traffic, up 42% compared to the same period last year.   

General Growth Properties has created an interactive sweepstakes series called Reindeer Games to promote shopping centers across its portfolio throughout the holiday shopping season.

Starring in Reindeer Games is every kid’s favorite reindeer Rudolph, “with his nose so bright.” Rudolph will lead Santa’s eight other reindeer through a series of nine three-day sweepstakes running from Nov. 28 through Dec. 24. By the end of the promotion, the series will have given away more than $25,000 in prizes.

Armonk, N.Y. – Online sales on Monday, Nov. 26 were up nearly 12% from the equivalent Monday a year earlier. Data from the IBM Digital Analytics Holiday Benchmark shows that mobile traffic accounted for nearly 32% of all online traffic, up 42% compared to the same period last year.   

Reston, Va. -- For the holiday season-to-date (Nov. 1 - 24), $18.9 billion has been spent online using desktop computers, up 14% versus the corresponding days last year, according to comScore. Tuesday, November 19 was the heaviest online spending day of the season to date at $963 million. Two other shopping days – Thursday, Nov. 14 and Sunday, Nov. 24 – have also seen at least $900 million in online retail spending.

Pedigree and the Broadway musical "Annie" worked together to promote awareness of dog adoption, and the partnership resulted in a $1 million donation to Pedigree Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping dogs find loving homes. A check was presented to the foundation after the matinee performance on Nov. 20.

Since its debut in 1977, "Annie" has featured a real-life shelter dog as Annie's companion Sandy, making the partnership between Pedigree brand and the Tony Award-winning musical even more special.