eCommerce

Dedham, Mass. -- iParty Corp., a leading party goods retailer with a strong presence in New England, has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Party City Holdings Inc., North America’s largest party supply retailer.

New York -- Limited Brands is putting the expansion of its teen-favorite Pink division into high gear.

On the chain’s quarterly conference call, company representatives said Pink will more than double its store count this year, growing from 34 stores to 83 stores by yearend.

Littleton, Mass. -- Dover Saddlery Retail, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dover Saddlery, will open its first New York store, in Huntington (on Long Island), on April 19.

The store, which will evoke the look and feel of a premium equestrian stable, will feature an extensive range of riding apparel, tack and horse care supplies from all the leading brands. The location, as all Dover Saddlery stores, will offer helmet, boot and coat fittings as well as demo saddles for test rides in a wide selection of models.

Minneapolis -- Best Buy Co. said that its loss narrowed in the fourth quarter, helped by improved U.S. sales. In a separate release, the company said that the deadline passed without it having received an acquisition offer from its co-founder, Richard Schulze, who had been considering making a bid for the chain.

“The company received no such offer and will continue to focus on its transformation for the benefit of all of its stakeholders,” Best Buy said in a statement.

Sixty percent of retailers with at least two years of negative comps turn them positive.

Here’s how. 

Two years of deep same-store sales declines can easily feel like a death sentence for most retailers. However, the data suggests it is indeed far from that. 

We analyzed all specialty retailers with sufficient public data over the last 20 years—nearly 70 retailers—and found that the majority of retailers who substantially underperformed the market ended up turning their comps positive in relatively short order. 

LOS ANGELES — Sport Chalet, a sporting goods chain operating mostly on the west coast, has expanded its online assortment.

Sport Chalet customers now have the opportunity to buy expanded offerings of bikes, fitness equipment, and snow sports apparel and hardgoods online at www.sportchalet.com and have their order seamlessly fulfilled by the vendor. The company expects to continue to grow the assortment of vendors and product categories using this new drop ship functionality.

Fourth quarter operating profits at Sear’s Holdings on an adjusted basis improved. 22% and same store sales at Sears flagship stores turned modestly positive.

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — Kohl’s Corporation reported fourth quarter diluted earnings per share of $1.66 compared with $1.81 for the fourth quarter of 2011. Net income for the fourth quarter was $378 million compared with $455 million a year ago. For the year, net income was $1 billion ($4.17 per diluted share) compared with $1.2 billion ($4.30 per diluted share) for fiscal 2011.

Total sales for the quarter were $6.3 billion, an increase of 5.4% over sales of $6 billion for the same period last year. Same-store sales for the quarter were up 1.9%.

Specialty apparel retailer Chico’s reported strong fourth quarter results and announced plans to debut a new format and enter Canada in 2013.

The company said sales for the 14 week fourth quarter ended February 2, increased 14.5% to $652 million thanks to the inclusion of an extra week in the reporting period, a 3.7% same store sales increase and a net increase of 101 new stores that expanded selling space by 8.1%. The 3.7% comp increase is noteworthy because it came on top of an 8.7% comp increase during the fourth quarter the prior year.

NEW YORK — ShopKeep POS was presented with a Bronze Stevie Award for Front-Line Customer Service Team of the Year in the Computer Hardware, Services & Software category at the seventh annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Other finalists in this category included Rackspace Hosting and nFocus Solutions.

ShopKeep POS was founded in 2008 by Jason Richelson, a former multi-store retailer in NYC, whose keen eye for merchant pain points and needs has influenced how he has built every inch of the company.