Seasonal

Dollar Tree and Dollar General shareholders may be wondering why the boards of their respective companies are so intent on acquiring Family Dollar after seeing the takeover target’s first quarter results.

San Francisco – In-store sales mostly showed small improvements in December 2014 compared to the prior year. According to the latest U.S. Retail Benchmarks report from in-store analytics provider Euclid, there was 0.6% year-over-year growth in general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other retail sales and a 1.2% increase in clothing and apparel sales, but a 1.5% decline in general merchandise sales.

Here are some of Euclid’s other top findings in its December report around shopper behavior metrics:

Hamilton, Bermuda – Signet Jewelers Ltd. had a sparkly holiday season. The retailer’s eight-week fiscal 2015 holiday season sales grew 3.6%.

Signet's omnichannel strategy was successful during the holiday season. E-commerce sales increased 90.9%, and, excluding the Zale division, increased 20%. As a percent of Signet's holiday season's total sales, e-commerce increased 1.6%. Each division delivered higher e-commerce growth and penetration relative to total sales.

San Jose, Calif. -- Despite some surprising showings over the holiday 2014 shopping season, a report by RetailNext said that overall traffic at brick-and-mortar stores dipped 7.1% for the Nov. 30-Jan. 3 shopping period.

The newly released Retail Performance Pulse also showed a 6.5% year-over-year decrease in sales.

Target is stepping up its efforts to attract new parents to its stores with a new partnership, educational classes and a social media campaign.

Bump Club and Beyond, the nation's largest social event network for new moms, is partnering with Target to present a national series of events designed to help expectant and new parents learn the "basics" of bringing up baby.

Momentum from Black Friday weekend continued through the holidays for Pier 1 Imports Inc.

The home furnishings retailer, which reported a disappointing third quarter in early November, reported an 8.2% increase in December same store sales. CEO Alex Smith said while sales in the third quarter were soft, November sales were strong versus a year ago, particularly over Thanksgiving weekend.

Regional discounter Fred’s strong pharmacy sales weren’t enough to help the company avert a 1.4 percent same store sales decline for the month.

New York – Barnes & Noble Inc. saw a sharp decline in holiday sales in its Nook e-reader division, even as its retail segment showed small improvement. The Nook segment (including digital content, devices and accessories), had sales of $56 million for the nine-week holiday period, decreasing 55% as compared to a year ago.