eCommerce

Reston, Va. -- For the holiday season-to-date, $26.6 billion has been spent online, up 13% versus the corresponding days last year, according to comScore. The firm predicts that Green Monday (Monday, December 10, 2012) is likely to be one of the heaviest online spending days of the season and a headliner for what is expected to the busiest online spending week on record.

New York -- Sephora plans to open 50 stores in Latin America by 2016, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Sephora opened its first Latin American store in 2011, in Mexico City. It was followed by locations in Puebla and Guadalajara and another one in Mexico City in 2012. It plans to open an additional five locations in the country in 2013.

It is also expanding in Brazil — the third largest beauty market in the world — with four new stores this year and another six in the pipeline, according to the report.

New York -- Give your new store and renovation projects the recognition they deserve:  Entries are now being accepted for the 31st annual Chain Store Age Retail Store of the Year Design Competition, which will celebrate outstanding retail and restaurant design.  More than 20 categories are featured, ranging from supermarkets and discount/mass merchants to specialty stores and pop-up stores. Entries may be submitted by retailers, designers, architects or suppliers.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Office Depot is making online shopping more convenient to holiday shoppers racing against the clock while trying to avoid steep shipping and handling fees.

BOSTON — Wayfair.com, an online retailer of home goods and furnishings, has raised $36.3 million in new equity financing to fuel the growth of its private sale site for the home, Joss & Main.

Joss & Main has fared extremely well for Wayfair.com, having acquired nearly three million members and operating at a $100 million annual revenue run-rate. Investors include Battery Ventures, Great Hill Partners, HarbourVest Partners and Spark Capital.

NEW YORK — LittleMissMatched, a tween girls apparel and accessories brand, has been acquired by Delta Galil USA. Delta Galil USA is the U.S.-based subsidiary of Delta Galil Industries, Ltd., a global manufacturer and marketer of branded and private label apparel products for men, women and children.

A 4.1% third quarter same store sales decline and $105 million loss hasn’t diminished holiday spirits at Toys "R" Us.

The company reported the sales decline for the period ended October 27 late Friday and attributed a portion of the dip in same store sales to a less promotional stance and an earlier start to its layaway program. The layaway program was launched on September, seven weeks before the end of the third quarter, but sales related to items placed in layaway can not be recognized until customers pick up their orders.

TORRANCE, Calif. — Smack Sportswear, a maker of custom-designed volleyball and beach active apparel, has lured the former True Religion Apparel executive Charles A. Lesser out of retirement and into its CFO spot.

Smack manufactures its Southern California-inspired apparel in its headquarters, five miles away from the home of beach volleyball.

Online sales are up 13% so far this holiday season and approaching a record $27 billion, according to the latest tally from the digital measurement firm comScore.

From November 1 through December 7, comScore puts total online spending at $26.8 billion, up 13% from $23.7 billion during the comparable period last year. Last week saw spending on December, 3, 4 and 5 each surpass $1 billion, according to the firm. That brings the number of billion spending days to seven. The highest volume day so far was Cyber Monday when sales hit nearly $1.5 billion.

Washington -- Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 3.9% in December despite a strike that closed the nation’s largest port complex for the first few days of the month, but retailers are keeping a close watch on a possible strike on the East Coast and Gulf Coast, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.