eCommerce

If you’re like me, and you were curious about how Black Friday hype translated into retail sales, your head is spinning right about now. Because the flurry of post-Black Friday news reports is packed with conflicting information, data that doesn’t seem to add up, and—perhaps unsurprisingly given those disparities—wildly variant conclusions about whether the Black Friday weekend was a “success” or a “disappointment” and about what is in store for the rest of the holiday season.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has turned to a Sears veteran for leadership after longtime and occasionally divisive CEO Michael Jeffries abruptly retired.

Abercrombie announced it will be run by a newly created Office of the Chairman, which includes former Sears CEO and current non-executive chairman of Abercrombie; COO Jonathan Ramsden; Christos Angelides, who oversees the Abercrombie & Fitch division; and Fran Horowitz, who leads Hollister.

Martinez retired from Sears in 2000 after serving as chairman and CEO there for five years.

New York - The Supreme Court handed out a victory to Amazon and other employers when it ruled unanimously on Tuesday that a temp agency was not required to pay workers at Amazon warehouses in Nevada for the time they spent waiting for and undergoing security checks at the end of their shifts.   The court reversed a lower court ruling from last year  which had allowed the workers to sue under the theory that since their screening time was required by the employer, it should be compensated.  

Plenty of retailers talk about returning cash to shareholders, but none does so as aggressively as The Buckle which just announced a whopper of a special dividend.

The Kearney, Neb.-based operator of 463 stores said it would pay a $2.77 special dividend in addition to its regular quarterly dividend of 23 cents on Jan. 27 to shareholders of record on Jan. 15. It is the seventh consecutive year the debt-free specialty retailer of young men’s and women’s apparel has paid a special dividend on top of its quarterly payout.

New York - In an abrupt move, Michael Jefferies, the longtime and often controversial chief of Abercrombie & Fitch, has retired as CEO and stepped down from the company’s board, effective immediately. His retirement caught the industry by surprise, particularly since it comes in the middle of the crucial holiday selling season.    

The Woodlands, Texas – Conn’s Inc. has named VP and chief accounting officer Mark Haley as interim CFO in the wake of the departure of former CFO Brian Taylor. The company also reported a net loss of $3.06 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to net income of $24.38 million a year earlier, missing Wall Street expectations.  

By Alex Romanov, iSign Media   The holiday season is a time of family, food, and frenzied shopping. Consumers are bombarded by messages, promotions, discounts, and offers, and retailers have to be smart about how they reach out to their customers. Email blasts or paper coupons just won’t cut it. In this mobile-obsessed era, proximity marketing is a powerful way to break through the noise and bring shoppers into your store.   

New York - The long delayed American Dream mega-mall and entertainment project at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey,  will open—at least partially— in the fall of 2016 and has signed on such tenants as Victoria’s Secret, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor and Gap and an array of restaurant and entertainment destinations, including a Cirque du Soleil theatre, according to The Record.