Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Sears Holdings Corp. says its trend of deep same-store sales declines is slowing, but the company did report a wider loss in the fourth quarter.

For the fourth quarter ended Jan. 30, Kmart and Sears same-store sales declined 7.2% and 6.9%, respectively, which was an improvement from the trend in the first three quarters of 2015. Sears reported a loss of $580 million, or $5.44 a share, compared with a loss of $159 million, or $1.50 a share, a year earlier. Revenue dropped 9.8% to $7.3 billion.

A combined 7.1% same-store sales decline at Sear and Kmart stores in the fourth quarter has parent company Sears Holdings vowing to undertake a wide range expense reduction and cash generating moves, including more store closings and asset sales.

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Home Depot, Amazon.com and Safeway are tops when it comes to offering the best mobile commerce experience according to a new study that benchmarks 20 top U.S. retailers against one another.

Sears Holding Corp. is trying to turn surging mobile traffic into a driver for store visits and purchases.

Sears has refreshed its mobile app with a number of features that help provide a seamless, store-centric customer experience. For example, members of its Shop Your Way loyalty program who enable location-based services can place mobile orders for out-of-stock items while in the store and get free home shipping.

Sears Holdings Corp. is doing a much better job at cutting costs than at stopping its sales decline.

The retailer’s total revenue in the third quarter, ended Oct. 31, fell 20% to $5.75 billion, from $7.21 billion in the year-ago period, amid store closings and divestitures and a drop in apparel and consumer electronics sales. (Sears had 1,687 stores at the end of the quarter, down from 2,249 a year earlier.)

Total same-store sales were down 8.6%. Kmart same-store sales declined 7.5%. Sears domestic same-store sales fell 9.6%.

Sears Holdings Corp. is doing a much better job at cutting costs than at stopping its sales decline.

Kmart is adding new features to its app aimed at holiday shoppers, including real-time, opt-in push notifications of exclusive online Bluelight Specials.

The ongoing quest of Sears Holding Corp. to leverage its vast real estate portfolio helped pave the way for British fast-fashion retailer Primark to enter the United States, giving the import access to space in malls throughout the Northeast.

In late 2014, Primark struck a deal with Sears to lease a total of approximately 520,000 sq. ft. in seven Sears mall-based locations. All the space is expected to be delivered to Primark by the end of 2015.

Over the past 15 years or so, fast-fashion has evolved from a trend to a phenomenon to an industry standard — one that has largely redefined the U.S. apparel retailing landscape.

From home-grown Forever 21 to Swedish import H&M, the market is awash in stores offering cheap, on-trend clothes at low prices. And now another import has entered the mix, Primark, which opened its first U.S. store in September, in Boston, the first of eight initial locations.