Direct To Consumer (DTC)

New York -- The Walt Disney Co. on Thursday will open its first store under the Disney Baby banner, USA Today reported. The new store is located in Americana, an upscale shopping center in Glendale, Calif.

“This gives Disney the opportunity to reach out to moms when magical moments begin," Bob Chapek, president of Disney Consumer Products, told USA Today. "There's no more special occasion than the birth of a baby."

New York -- Gap Inc.’s Piperlime banner has opened its first full-scale retail location -- at 121 Wooster St. in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City.

"We are thrilled to be celebrating the opening of our first Piperlime store today in SoHo," said Jennifer Gosselin, senior VP and general manager of Piperlime. "

The new 4,000-sq.-ft. store is styled as a boutique and features trend vignettes, as well as in-store kiosks that provide shoppers access to piperlime.com products.

Houston -- Francesca's Holdings Corp. said Tuesday that net income for the quarter ended July 28 topped expectations by nearly doubling to $12.7 million, from $5.5 million in the same quarter last year. Sales leaped nearly 50% to $25.1 million, and same-store sales surged $20.7%.

The company said it is on track to open 76 stores and one outlet this fiscal year, two of them in the third quarter.

Washington, D.C. -- Shop.org, the digital division of the National Retail Federation, on Tuesday announced the addition of new executives to its board of directors and welcomed back three incumbents.

Lynnwood, Wash. -- Zumiez Inc. reported Thursday that net income for the quarter ended July 28 slipped to $2.1 million, from $2.6 million in the year-ago period, largely due to costs associated with its acquisition of Blue Tomato.

Revenue surged 20.4% to $135.1 million from $112.2 million, which includes contributions from Blue Tomato. Same-store sales increased 9.5%.

The company said it is on track to open 50 new stores in fiscal 2012, including up to 10 stores in Canada.
 

Hampstead, Md. -- JoS A. Bank Clothiers reported that its earnings in the second quarter rose 12.7% to $23.2 million, from $20.6 million a year earlier, easily beating analysts projections. The retailer said it plans to open about 45 to 50 stores each in fiscal 2012 and 2013.

Total sales in the quarter rose 12.9% to $260.3 million. Sales in the company's direct marketing segment, which consists of the Internet and catalog call centers, rose 39.3%.Same-store store sales increased 6.1%.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Pacific Sunwear of California reported that net sales for the second quarter of fiscal 2012 ended July 28, were $210.3 million versus net sales of $200.9 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 ended July 30, 2011.

On a GAAP basis, the xompany reported a loss from continuing operations of $17.5 million, or 26 cents per share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2012, compared with a loss from continuing operations of $17.5 million, or 26 cents per share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2011.

Walmart.com still has a lot of ground to make up on Amazon.com, but July was a step in the right direction as the company added more unique visitors and grew at a faster pace than Amazon.com.

The number of unique visitors to Walmart.com increased 16.8% I to 45.2 million and placed the company 23 on a top 50 Web properties report compiled monthly by the online measurement firm comScore Media Metrix. During July of 2011, Walmart.com ranked 25^{th with 38.7 million unique visitors.}