Department Store

Minneapolis -- Target has expanded its Beauty Concierge program to 95 stores in New York and New Jersey, the San Francisco Bay Area and Dallas-Fort Worth. Under the program, stores are staffed with a beauty concierge, a specially trained, brand-agnostic assistant who answers customers' questions in the store and provides personalized, detailed and unbiased information about beauty and personal care products.

By Stephen Springham, senior retail analyst at Planet Retail

Three quarters of results and a hat-trick of disappointments — Walmart U.S. again failed to achieve its guidance of flat comps in Q3, reporting a decline of 0.3%. This was not entirely unexpected as an already fragile consumer environment has not been helped by the government shutdown.

Nordstrom’s third quarter results were consistent with its full-year outlook. Strong direct sales growth and improving trends in the Rack mitigated softer sales trends in full-line stores.

The company’s Anniversary Sale, which is historically its largest sale event of the year, fell in the second quarter this year, rather than in the second and third quarters as it did last year. The estimated impact of this event shift increased earnings per diluted share in the second quarter but reduced them in this quarter by approximately $0.06.

Gordon Brothers Group, a global advisory, restructuring and investment firm specializing in the retail, consumer products, industrial and real estate sectors, has named Robert E. Grosskopf and Richard P. Edwards as co-presidents of the retail division.

They will jointly assume responsibility for the division's growth strategy while overseeing all client engagements and daily operations.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. – Kohl’s Corp. missed Wall Street forecasts with a generally poor showing in the third quarter of fiscal 2013 that saw the retailer’s net income fell 18% to $177 million from $215 million a year ago. The chain lowered its full-year earnings forecast.

In addition, net sales dropped 1% to $4.44 billion, from $4.49 billion. Same-store sales fell 1.6%.

Toronto -- To help increase profitability, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) launched a promotion optimization initiative in Canada to improve the ROI of its flyers, or newspaper ads. HBC worked with Saferock to develop the solution, which uses sophisticated analytics to analyze millions of records each week.

London -- Disney U.K. is teaming up with Harrods to open a Cinderella-inspired "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique" at the world famous department store, marking the first time that a Disney Parks and Resorts concept has been recreated in the United Kingdom. The boutique will be the centerpiece of partnership between Disney and Harrods that also includes a dedicated Disney Store, which opened on Nov. 1. .

Dillard’s reported moderate growth in net income and sales during the third quarter of fiscal 2013. Compared to the same period a year earlier, net income increased 5% to $50.9 million from $48.5 million, while net sales climbed about 1% to $1.51 billion from $1.49 billion.