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Christmas may have passed, but the holiday shipping surge continues

According to UPS, the holiday peak shipping season will extend well into the first week of the New Year. On Jan. 6, 2016 (National Returns Day) alone, consumers are expected to ship more than a million packages back to retailers. By the end of the first week of January, UPS expects to deliver more than 5 million return packages, an increase of 500,000 from the 2014-15 holiday returns season.

Walmart confirmed that its CMO, Stephen Quinn, who had held executive marketing positions with the chain for 10 years, will retire in January.

Michael Francis, Target Corp.'s former marketing guru, has been hired as a consultant. Francis spent 26 years at Target and most recently served as global brand officer for DreamWorks Animation. In August, he announced that he planned to step down from Dreamworks.

Former Target CMO Michael Francis will reportedly serve as a marketing consultant at Walmart when the retailer’s current CMO steps down.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Stephen Quinn will retire as executive VP and CMO in January after spending nearly a decade at the Walmart. Francis, who spent 27 years with Target, is expected to join Walmart to initiate a broad marketing revamp and work closely with Quinn’s successor, The Journal said, citing a person it said was familiar with the situation.

Former Target Chief Marketing Officer Michael Francis will reportedly serve as a marketing consultant at Walmart when the retailer’s current CMO steps down.

For the second time this year, Target’s e-commerce site crashed due to exceptionally high levels of activity related to a major sales promotion.

The Target site went down the morning of Cyber Monday, Nov. 30. According to reports, the crash was actually a controlled restriction of the site by Target in response to extremely heavy volumes of visitors looking for holiday bargains.

Three leading retailers suffered varying degrees of difficulty with their e-commerce sites during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Cabela’s is looking to increase sales this holiday by opening seasonal stores in some military installations.

Photo: Courtesy of Kmart/Wendy Williams poses during recent a Wendy Williams Show taping at Kmart where the retailer announced the Bluelight Specials are back.

Kmart is hoping that bringing back a 50-year-old marketing strategy will ignite a new sales push online and in stores.