National Retail Federation (NRF)

New York City -- A Wednesday report by MarketWatch said that a potential strike by nearly 15,000 dock workers at 14 ports from Boston to Houston beginning on Sunday may derail retailers’ spring selling as well.

Total losses attributed to retail shrinkage hit $34.5 billion last year, “positioning retail crime as the largest form of property crime,” according to Dr. Richard Hollinger, professor of criminology, law and society, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla. And it shows no signs of easing anytime soon. Indeed, the rate of shrink remains on a five-year climb, according to the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC), Gainesville, Fla.

By Jeannie Lewis, [email protected], @dot jeannie

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation announced that its board of directors has authorized the Federation to go to court to block the proposed $7.25 billion settlement of a federal antitrust lawsuit over skyrocketing Visa and MasterCard credit card swipe fees that cost consumers hundreds of dollars a year.

Retailers should brace for strong back-to-school sales according to a National Retail Federation survey that shows a surge in K-through-12 and college spending.

New York City -- National Retail Federation officials said Monday that a record crowd of 24,000 attendees is expected to converge on its 101st Annual Convention & Expo, which kicked off Sunday at the Jacob J. Javits Convention Center in New York City. The exhibit floor officially opens on Monday.

Smarter decision-making is a goal all retailers have, and now Target should be in an even better position to execute on that objective following a major agreement with industry leading data warehousing and analytics provider Teradata.

Was it a good holiday season or a bad one? Depends who you ask and how results are interpreted as evidenced by conflicting perspectives on U.S. Commerce Department statistics released Thursday morning.

It was widely reported that December sales were a disappointment by media outlets, which cited Commerce Department statistics released Thursday morning showing a rise of 0.1% versus the 0.3% that was widely reported as the expectation of economists.