Winter Holidays

Add Target to the list of retailers whose weak third quarter sales performance highlighted troubling spending behaviors that threaten to undermine its holiday sales performance.

The company reported disappointing third quarter sales and profits Thursday morning and then stated the obvious that shoppers will price sensitive during an intensely competitive holiday season. The company said same store sales increased 0.9%, slightly less than the company’s forecast provided on August 21 which called for an increase of 1% to 2%.

New York -- MasterCard Advisor’s latest MasterCard Spending Pulse survey found that there are some product categories that won’t see the biggest spending uptick on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The monthly SpendingPulse report anticipates that the biggest shopping day of the season for jewelry and luxury retailers will be Dec. 21 – the last Saturday before Christmas, which is becoming commonly known as “Super Saturday.”

Amazon.com is going to start offering Black Friday deals a day earlier than last year, beginning Sunday, Nov. 24, as often as every 10 minutes.

“We are heading into the busiest and most fun time of the year for Amazon, with an astonishing number of deals for customers,” said Craig Berman, VP, Amazon Global Communications.

Consumers will be able to pick from an assortment of electronics, toys, books, movies and tools and will be also able to shop via the mobile shopping app.

San Francisco -- Williams-Sonoma Inc.'s on Thursday reported that its third-quarter profit rose a better-then-expected 16% as same-store sales increased across all its brands. The company also raised its full-year view.

Increased customer traffic helped drive Dollar Tree’s third-quarter results. The retailer cited growth in consumer basics as well as seasonal and variety merchandise, and said its higher margin variety categories are growing at a faster pace.

The company reported consolidated net sales for the quarter of $1.9 billion, a 9.5% increase from $1.72 billion for the year-ago quarter. Comparable store sales increased 3.1%.

Oklahoma City -- Seventy-four percent of shoppers plan to give one or more gift cards this holiday season, and nearly 30%  planned on giving five or more gift cards, according to a study by the Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA). The results show that gift cards drive store traffic, with 78% of consumers planning to spend their cards at the retailer's brick-and-mortar location

The Holiday Gift Card Trend Tracker Survey finds that the number of gift cards consumers plan to purchase as gifts this year increased by 71%.

Bon-Ton is looking ahead to the holiday selling season, and focusing its marketing efforts on driving shoppers not only to stores but also to its e-commerce site.

The company saw comparable store sales for the third quarter decrease 2.8%. But the company was able to narrow its loss to $0.9 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, from $10.1 million, or $0.55 per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2012.
 

Washington, D.C. -- More than 60% of consumers will start holiday shopping on Black Friday and most will spend more than 50% of their holiday budget over the Thanksgiving weekend, according to research by the Georgetown Institute for Consumer Research, sponsored by KPMG.