eCommerce

Boot Barn continued its march of success in the third quarter, which produced another round of positive financial results.

The company reported that for the third quarter ended Dec. 27, net sales increased 13.1% to $130.5 million; same store sales, which include e-commerce sales, increased 7.2%; and net income was $8.8 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, compared to a net income of $6.3 million or $0.33 per diluted share.

Steinmart plans to pay a $5 special dividend thanks to the availability of low cost financing that allowed the company to more than double the size of its credit facility.

Columbus, Ohio -- L Brands shareholders will receive a post-holiday gift in the way of a $2 a share special dividend. The news comes as the retailer, which also increased its ordinary annual dividend by 47% to $2 a share from $1.36 a share, reported significantly better than expected profits for its fourth quarter.

L Brands, whose brands include Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works and La Senza, said same-store sales increased 7% and total sales for the four-week period ended Jan. 31 increased 7% to $783.1 million.

New York -- A mixed economic backdrop is expected to drive modest retail sales growth in the 3% to 4% range in 2015, compared to 5.5% average growth in 2010-2012 and 5.8% in 2002-2006, according to GE Capital. Low- and mid-income households will be particularly constrained by stagnant earnings despite improvements in employment status and the housing market as well as lower gas prices.
 
According to GE Capital, the key trends in retail include the following:

Sales of an exclusive holiday cookbook will allow Dillard’s to donate more than $900,000 to of Ronald McDonald House Charities.   For the seventh year in a row, Dillard's offered for sale a special edition of the Southern Living Christmas Cookbook to benefit RMHC.   

New York -- U.S. retail and consumer (R&C) total transaction value for 2014 hit a five-year high and surpassed the $100 billion mark for the second year in a row, according to PwC’s U.S. retail and consumer deals insights 2014 Year in Review and 2015 Outlook report.

Cache on Wednesday said it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after running out of capital and time to complete its turnaround.

The women’s apparel retailer will continue to operate its business, but intends to continue to reduce its store count and sell and renegotiate some of its leases. Cache chairman and CEO Jay Margolis said the company filed Chapter 11 with the goal of “securing Cache’s future.”

Seattle -- Amazon confirmed reports that it is piloting co-branded pickup sites with universities with the announcement that it has opened its first-ever staffed pickup and drop-off on-campus location, at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and plans to open similar sites at the University of California, Davis and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.