Direct To Consumer (DTC)

Toronto – So far, the November 2013 purchase of Saks Fifth Avenue by Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) is paying dividends. HBC reported strong results during the second quarter of fiscal 2014, including a shrinking of its net loss from $81 million in the second quarter of the prior fiscal year to $36 million.

Primarily due to the addition of Saks revenue, total sales climbed 87% to $1.77 billion from $948 million. Consolidated same-store sales grew 1.9%. Digital sales were $162 million, including $116 million from Saks.

New York – Ann Inc. is publicly responding to an open letter sent by activist investors Engine Capital and Red Alder on Aug. 25, which urged the company to sell at a substantial premium above current stock price. In a press release, Ann Inc. said its board is “very active and consistently has been, and remains, focused on enhancing shareholder value.”

Ann Inc. also said its board regularly reviews all options and uses a financial advisor to help evaluate them.

E-commerce as a segment of the total retail market is growing at 30% per year and will reach $2 trillion in sales in 2015, according to e-commerce platform Bigcommerce.

Based on research conducted across its more than 55,000 clients, and combined with third-party research from Sagence, Bigcommerce’s Democratization of E-commerce Report also predicts that the U.S. small and medium business ecommerce market will exceed $100 billion in total sales in 2015.

Foot Locker has enlisted crowdsourced delivery service Deliv so it can offer online customers same-day delivery.

Deliv's Application Programming Interface (API) connects directly to Footlocker’s website, allowing shoppers to select same-day or next day delivery for $5.

New York – Foot Locker Inc. is partnering with crowdsourced delivery service Deliv to offer shoppers on its Footlocker.com website the option to have their purchases delivered same-day. Leveraging Deliv's Application Programming Interface (API), which connects directly into the Footlocker.com website, shoppers can now select same-day or next day delivery for $5.

Dodgeville, Wis. — Net income at Lands’ End Inc. grew 5% to $11.8 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 from $11.3 million in the same period a year earlier. Net sales also increased 5%, to $347.2 million from $329.6 million.

Same-store sales improved 2.8%. Lands’ End attributed its positive performance to improved merchandise assortment, modern creative presentation, better inventory management and continued expense controls.

Although Lululemon CEO Laurent Potdevin recognizes that there is still much to be done, he praised the company’s “meaningful” progress on building a scalable foundation for its next phase of global growth.

Net revenue for the quarter increased 13% to $390.7 million from $344.5 million in the second quarter last year.

According to Lands’ End president and CEO Edgar Huber, the company is well positioned to continue executing against its strategic initiatives to drive long-term sales and earnings growth.

The retailer, which completed its separation from Sears on April 4, has achieved double digit year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth for more than four consecutive quarters as of the second quarter of fiscal 2014.