Apparel

Wolverine Worldwide has appointed Gina R. Boswell to the company's board of directors.

Boswell is EVP, personal care, for global food, personal care and household products company Unilever. She has held numerous senior leadership positions with other leading global companies, including Avon Products, Ford Motor Company and Estée Lauder Companies.

Retail sales in November increased a better-than-expected 0.7% seasonally-adjusted month-to-month, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The figure includes categories such as automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants.

Analysts were expecting sales to rise 0.6% in last month. The latest retail sales numbers were 4.7% above November 2012 numbers.

Men’s Wearhouse reported declining net income during the third quarter of fiscal 2013 even as net sales improved.

Net income dropped about 22%, from $48.8 million in the third quarter of the prior fiscal year to $38.2 million.

Walmart declared an early Black Friday victory and reported record Cyber Monday sales, but the big box retailer is not done yet. Starting at 8 a.m. Friday, it is launching its Christmas Countdown Savings Event and dropping prices on popular toys, electronics, apparel and table games.

With only 12 days to shop before Christmas, the strategy aims to drive last-minute shoppers to both its stores and e-commerce site.

Chicago -- Consumers spent a majority of last week recovering from “Black Weekend” holiday shopping. ShopperTrak – the world’s largest provider of retail shopper analytics – reported that for the week of Dec. 2 to Dec. 8, brick-and-mortar sales of general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other products (GAFO) fell 2.9% compared to the same time last year. Last week’s retail shopper traffic decreased 21.6% compared to the same time period in 2012.

Waltham, Mass. – Personalization software company True Fit has become a Demandware Link Technology Partner. Through the Link Technology Partner Program, True Fit has developed a pre-built integration between its fit technology platform and Demandware Commerce.

Portland, Ore. – The online active lifestyle apparel retailer Respect Your Universe has signed a five year lease with General Growth Properties Inc. to open its initial flagship store in downtown Seattle at Westlake Center. The retailer has partnered with Los Angeles-based architect and retail strategist Richard Altuna to design the 2,082-sq.-ft. flagship store.

Washington, D.C. — ICSC has named EDENS the winner of two gold awards for its Mosaic development in Fairfax, Va. The awards were for the ICSC United States Gold Design and Development Award in the categories of New Development and Sustainable Design. ICSC announced the winners at the annual Retail Green and CenterBuild Conference in Phoenix.

Houston — Jones Lang LaSalle’s Capital Markets group has closed the sale of Northwest Crossing Centre, a 179,469-sq.-ft., fully leased shopping center in Houston. USA Properties purchased the property from Weingarten Realty. JLL secured 10-year, fixed-rate financing for the acquisition.

Sport Chalet kicked off the holidays with strong Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday sales figures and anticipates further growth for the duration of the shopping season.

Black Friday weekend comparable sales were up 17.1% compared to 2012, and Cyber Monday comparable sales increased by 34.8%.