Target, Inc.

NEW YORK — Iconix Brand Group has acquired the Umbro brand from Nike for $225 million in cash.

The purchase price was funded with Iconix’s recently completed $600 million securitized financing facility, which gives the company flexibility to pursue other deals. Iconix chairman and CEO Neil Cole alluded to that possibility in commenting on the Umbro acquisition.

New York -- Early reports indicate that Target Corp.’s holiday promotion with Neiman Marcus is not off to the spectacular start that many industry experts had expected. The promotion includes some 50 gift items featuring works of 24 well-known designers from Marc Jacobs to Diane von Furstenberg to Judith Leiber.

Same store sales in November at Target plunged unexpectedly while apparel discounters and Costco kept humming and Kroger extended its string of consecutive comp increases to nine years.

The nations second largest grocer this week reported a third quarter profit, excluding some non-recurring items, of 46 cents that was three cents better than analysts forecast and its identical store sales increased by 3.2%. Total sales including fuel for the period increased 5.9% to $21.8 billion.

New York -- Amazon and Costco lead the pack lead the pack when it comes to the e-tailers that have most satisfied their customers, according to the "2012 Harris Poll Shopper Satisfaction Study of Online Retailers." The survey used a 100-point scale to measure customer satisfaction with the e-commerce sites of 14 big retailers. Amazon.com ranked first with a score of 82.

New York -- Shopper sentiment tracker NetBase said that, since Black Friday, it has been tracking the changes in shopper moods for 10 retailers with its Holiday Shopping Mood Meter.

The company found that Kohl’s was No. 1 more often than Amazon, Walmart was the only brand with a net negative sentiment, and Old Navy broke the Top 5 only once.

By Jennifer Friedberg, [email protected]

This is the year that retailers stop being afraid of mobile technologies, and instead, are embracing them as a way to engage with, and to better serve, their customers.

A worse than expected 1% decline in November same store sales indicates the holiday season is off to a slow start at Target.

The 1% decline was substantially worse than the low single digit increase the company forecast at the start of the month when it reported a 2.4% increase for October that was toward the low end of guidance. The November weakness suggest traffic trends may be deteriorating at Target as the company said blamed the decline on a decrease in comparable store transactions following that metric’s flat performance in October.

New York -- Discounters, which are expected to fare well this holiday season, showed mixed results in November. TJX Cos. reported Thursday that November same-store sales climbed 3%, missing Wall Street’s expected 3.6% rise but beating the retailer’s internal expectations.

Target Corp. saw same-store sales fall in November, hurt by weak sales during the first two weeks. Comps dipped 1%, while Wall Street expected a 2.1% gain. Revenue for the month was essentially flat.

Target is working its way across Canada beginning this week by hosting special events in 20 cities to build interest in the planned opening of 124 stores in 2013.

Mississauga, Ontario -- Target will sponsor a tour across Canada that will visit more than 20 communities ahead of the planned opening of its stores in the country, the retailer said Tuesday.

The tour will start in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and conclude in British Columbia in the middle of December. Target plans to open 124 stores in Canada starting in March and April 2013.