Apparel

London -- Challenged to grow in the U.S., teen apparel chain American Eagle Outfitters is making good on its pledge to leverage the overseas market to kickstart expansion.   

Seattle -- Nordstrom has surpassed Wall Street estimates with an unexpected jump in profit and sales for the quarter ended Nov. 1.   The department store retailer reported a profit of $142 million for the third quarter, up from $137 million in the year-ago period.   Sales jumped 9% to $3.14 billion, beating the expected $3.11 billion in revenue. Same-store sales rose 3.9%.  

Little Rock, Ark. -- Dillard's Inc. reported Thursday a profit of $55.2 million in its fiscal third quarter, up 8.4% over the $50.9 million profit in the same period last year.   Sales, however, dipped to $1.460 billion, from $1.469 billion, and same-stores sales declined 1%.   Still, said CEO William T. Dillard II, "We believe we are positioned very well for the holiday season.”  

New York -- A petition to get Old Navy to stop charging more for women's plus-size jeans has gathered more than 36,000 signatures online, Bloomberg reports.  

Perhaps the most aggressive traffic and sales generating promotional effort this Black Friday comes courtesy of Old Navy.

The Old Navy division of Gap, Inc., plans to open its more than 800 stores at 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving day and will price all merchandise at half off for 31 hours until stores close at 11 p.m. on Black Friday. And, if the 50% markdown isn’t sufficient to motivate shoppers, the retailer plans generate store traffic by giving away $1 million to one lucky customer and 1,000 $200 gift certificates.

Spanx, one of the hottest brands in retail, named finance executive Dan Glennon to the new role of COO and CFO to help drive growth at the leading shapewear brand.

Glennon will lead the cross functional teams of global finance, legal, information technology, sourcing, manufacturing and planning as well as data and analytics. He will report directly to Spanx CEO Jan Singer.

New stores, 3.9% same store sales growth and increased loyalty propelled Nordstrom to record third quarter sales.

The company’s total sales increased 8.9% to $3 billion thanks to the addition of new stores and a 3.9% same store sales increase that was driven by online growth. Profits increased 3.6% to $142 million compared to $137 million while earnings per share increased 5.8% to 73 cents from 69 cents.

New York –- Specialty retailer Rebecca Minkoff has opened a “connected store” powered by EBay technology in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, and will open connected stores in San Francisco Nov. 19 and in Los Angeles in 2015, respectively. Using EBay technology, the stores include mirrored displays with touchscreen video content that let customers request associate assistance or order drinks.  

When asked which Cyber Monday offers they will take advantage of, 70% of consumers said deals. In addition, a new survey from FatWallet.com shows that 42% said coupons, 31% said cash back, 51% said storewide discounts and 68% said free shipping.  

Kansas City -- Eddie Bauer has opened an Eddie Bauer Outlet story at Kansas City’s signature designer outlet shopping center, Legends Outlet Kansas City. The new store opened on Nov. 13.   The only area Eddie Bauer Outlet opened between J. Crew | crewcuts and OshKosh B’Gosh at 1813 Village West Parkway, occupying 3,964 sq. ft.