Retail

New York – Facebook had a notable influence on holiday shoppers, especially those using mobile devices. According to a new study from Millward Brown Digital, 83% of 500 consumers surveyed who follow a retailer or consumer product on Facebook found their posts to be somewhat to very valuable when preparing for holiday shopping.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has lowered the same-stores sales guidance it previously released for fourth quarter 2013 due to factors including severe winter weather and reduced governmental assistance to consumers. Wal-Mart U.S. guidance for the fourth quarter previously projected same-store sales without fuel to be relatively Sam’s Club same-store sales without fuel to be between flat and up 2%.

Canton, Mass. -- Dennis Hernreich, executive VP, COO and CFO of Destination XL Group Inc., has resigned to pursue new challenges and board member John E. Kyees has been named interim CFO. In addition, the company has elected Will Mesdag, 60, to its board of directors.

Kyees, who has served on the Destination XL board of directors since 2010, was CFO of Urban Outfitters from 2003 until his retirement in 2010, and has served as a senior financial executive at several other prominent retailers. The company is conducting a search for a permanent CFO.

New York -- In a study of the returns and refunds performance of the 25 largest online retailers, StellaService found that the majority of retailers evaluated aren’t meeting consumer expectations.

StellaService analysts ordered the same product from each retailer to be delivered to the three separate regions of East, West and Midwest. They then returned the product, tracking metrics such as the presence of a prepaid, adhesive return label, total time to receive a return authorization and refund speed. The average refund speed of was 10.7 days.

Northbrook, Ill. — Pine Tree Commercial Realty has acquired two shopping centers, one in Nevada and the other in Missouri. The developer has also broken ground on four properties, two in Illinois, one in Idaho, and one in California.

The activity brings Pine Tree’s current portfolio to 3.2 million sq. ft. in 24 properties.

Dennis Hernreich, EVP, COO and CFO of Destination XL Group, has resigned and board member John E. Kyees has been named interim CFO. In addition, the company has elected Will Mesdag, 60, to its board of directors.

Kyees, who has served on the Destination XL board of directors since 2010, was CFO of Urban Outfitters from 2003 until his retirement in 2010, and has served as a senior financial executive at several other prominent retailers. The company is conducting a search for a permanent CFO.

Washington, D.C. – The National Retail Federation (NRF) is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee the week of Feb. 3, as lawmakers begin to look into criminal attacks in which millions of consumers’ credit and debit card numbers were stolen.

When it comes to meeting consumer expectations, the stakes for retailers have never been higher. Digital age consumers are more discerning, have high expectations for the quality of product information and use technology in a variety of ways to make educated purchasing decisions. They use search engines to get more information about a product or brand. They comparison-shop online. They visit manufacturers’ websites. They read online endorsements, reviews and recommendations.