Apparel

J.C. Penney scored a major victory during October with same stores sales up 0.9%. That may not seem like much, but for a company that has been written off by many the meager increase offers an encouraging tailwind heading into what retailer’s nationwide expect to be a challenging holiday season.

Plano, Texas – J.C. Penney says it is making continued progress in its turnaround after reporting some strong financial results for October 2013. Preliminary results indicate that compared to the same month in the prior year, same-store sales increased 0.9%, online sales grew 37.6%, and conversion continued to improve, which Penney says reflects favorable customer response to promotional events and improved inventory levels.

Beverly Hills, Calif. — Quantum Capital Partners, a real estate finance and advisory firm, has arranged two new loans to refinance two retail properties in Las Vegas for a private investor.

A $1.04 million loan will refinance the 12,000-sq.-ft. El Mercado, an L-shaped retail center in east Las Vegas, and a $1.19 million loan will refinance Wigwam, a 10,300-sq.-ft. strip center about four miles south of the Las Vegas Strip.

New York – Retailers across a variety of verticals reported improved same-store sales during October 2013, compared to the same month in the previous year. Even embattled department store retailer J.C. Penney saw its same-store sales grow for the first time since December 2011, and specialty and apparel retail conglomerate L Brands and discount club retailer PriceSmart reported particularly impressive same-store sales results.

Stein Mart posted strong sales in October, driven partly by upgraded designer and national brands. Total sales for the four-week period ended Nov. 2, increased 6.9% and comparable-store sales increased 5.4%.

For the third quarter ended Nov. 2, total sales increased 6.1% and comparable-store sales increased 4.8%.

San Jose, Calif. -- Despite the shortest shopping season since 2002, online sales look strong for the upcoming holidays. A new survey from Adobe predicts record growth for online sales on Thanksgiving with $1.1 billion and Black Friday with $1.6 billion, increases of 21% and 17%, respectively.

New York – The average consumer will spend $825 on holiday purchases in 2013, a 5% drop from last year. According to the new Brand Keys annual holiday survey, only 19% of shoppers surveyed indicated that they started shopping for the holidays in October, 5% fewer than 2012.

Leading diamonds and fine jewelry online retailer Blue Nile has added Scott Howe to its board of directors, effective Jan. 1, 2014. Howe is president and CEO of Acxiom Corporation, an enterprise data, analytics and software-as-a-service company.

Prior to his current role, Howe was corporate VP of Microsoft Advertising Business Groups, where he managed a multibillion-dollar business encompassing all emerging businesses related to online advertising including search, display, in-game, mobile, digital cable and a variety of enterprise software applications.