eCommerce

The parent company of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works credited the strength of its brands with helping it to buck the financial doldrums affecting many other retailers in the fourth quarter.

For the period ended Jan. 30, L Brands earned $636 million, or $2.15 a share, up from $564.8 million, or $1.89 a share, a year earlier. Net income increased 13% to $636.0 million, compared to $564.8 million last year. Net sales were $4.395 billion, an increase of 8%. Same-store sales increased 6%.

So much for the argument that the U.S. market is saturated with retail stores and e-commerce is hurting mall traffic. Tanger Factory Outlet Centers brought four new properties online in 2015 and still managed to achieve a portfolio occupancy rate in excess of 95% for the 35th consecutive year.

They are not mythological monsters, but a real phenomenon retailers say is limiting their ability to take advantage of emerging technologies.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is officially calling on Congress to pass patent reform legislation that would put an end to “shakedown settlements” forced on retailers by “patent trolls.” Patent trolls are companies that purchase often-obscure patents for technology they did not invent, then demand licensing fees from retailers and other businesses that may not realize the technology is patented.

U.S. consumers are willing to use mobile devices during the shopping process, but not so much at the end.

According to a new study of 23,000 global consumers (including U.S. shoppers) from PwC, “Total Retail 2016,” only 22% of U.S. consumers make a mobile purchase at least monthly and only 26% say mobile will become a main purchasing tool for them in the future. Deloitte cites the lack of widespread tools to make mobile purchasing easier, such as buy buttons, currently available in the U.S.

Sears Holdings Corp. says its trend of deep same-store sales declines is slowing, but the company did report a wider loss in the fourth quarter.

For the fourth quarter ended Jan. 30, Kmart and Sears same-store sales declined 7.2% and 6.9%, respectively, which was an improvement from the trend in the first three quarters of 2015. Sears reported a loss of $580 million, or $5.44 a share, compared with a loss of $159 million, or $1.50 a share, a year earlier. Revenue dropped 9.8% to $7.3 billion.

The CEO of HSN says that for the first time ever, more than half of sales at HSN came from digital channels.

But onine sales did not make up for heavy discounting, and the companyposted profit and revenue declines.The company reported that for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, net sales decreased 2% and adjusted EBITDA decreased 3%.Adjusted EPS was $1.15 compared to $1.22 in the prior year.

Build-A-Bear is adding two new board members whose backgrounds should serve the company well as it moves forward with its transformation plan.

Build-A-Bear announced that Tim Kilpin and Sarah Personette have been appointed to the company’s board of directors.

Kilpin, 55, will serve as a member of the Audit Committee and as a member of the Compensation and Development Committee. Personette, 36, will serve as a member of the Compensation and Development Committee and as a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.