eCommerce

Los Angeles -- Guess Inc. reported Wednesday a profit of $36.6 million for the third quarter, down 44.7% from net earnings of $66.3 million in the same period last year.
 
Revenue fell 2.2% to $628.8 million, from $642.8 million in the prior-year quarter, but beating analysts’ expected $624.8 million in revenue. Retail sales in North America dipped 1.3% to $262.1 million. Same-store sales overall dropped 6%.
 
The company said economic pressures hurt consumer confidence in most of its markets.

New York -- Aeropostale reported Thursday that profit for the third quarter rose to $24.9 million, from $24.1 million last year.
 
Sales increased 2% to $605.9 million, beating Wall Street’s expected $601.2 million. Same-store sales dipped 2%.

New York -- Barnes & Noble reported Thursday net income of $2.2 million for the quarter ended Oct. 27, compared with a loss of $6.6 million in the year-ago period.

Revenue was nearly flat at $1.88 billion, missing Wall Street’s expected $1.91 billion in revenue.

New York -- Blaming superstorm Sandy for its disappointing November results, Macy’s reported a 0.7% dip in same-store sales and missed Wall Street’s expected 1.5% rise. The results were echoed by much of the category.

"Despite the largest-volume Thanksgiving weekend in our company's history, we were not able to overcome the weak start to the month, which included the disruption of Hurricane Sandy," said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and CEO of Macy’s. Total sales for the month slipped 0.6% to $2.45 billion.

New York -- Retailers that opened early on Thanksgiving evening gained an advantage and that promotional activity was about on par with last year, according to a new Moody’s report, “Thanksgiving Weekend: The Early Bird Gets the Worm.”

Atlanta -- Year-over-year retail dollar volume growth on Thanksgiving and Black Friday was healthy at 5.6% as many retailers started the holiday shopping season earlier this year and consumers welcomed the opportunity to find bargains, according to a study by First Data Corp.’s First Data SpendTrend analysis for Black Friday 2012 compared with Black Friday 2011. (SpendTrend tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT, closed-loop prepaid cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations.)

Specialty retailer Express said its same store sales for the third quarter ended October 27, declined 5% and profits declined to $17.4 million, or 20 cents a share, compared to $32.7 million, or 37 cents a share.

Total sales for the period declined 4% to $468.5 million and gross margins contracted to 32.3% of sales from 36.2% of sales the prior year. Expenses increased to 25.1% of sales form 23.6% of sales.

CHICAGO — OfficeMax EVP and president of OfficeMax Workplace John Kenning has been appointed to the board of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.

The appointment comes just seven months after Kenning joined OfficeMax to lead the retailer’s contract division that was renamed OfficeMax Marketplace earlier this month.

NEW YORK — Barnes & Noble will offer teachers a special holiday shopping event Saturday, Dec. 1.

Educators who shop at their local Barnes & Noble store or at www.bn.com and present a valid Barnes & Noble Educators Discount Card will receive special discounts on select merchandise.

Microsoft has taken offense to the practice of paying to improve one’s ranking in Google search results and has launched a campaign touting its "honest" search results.

Google is the leader in search, but Bing contend the company has begun a "pay-to-rank" practice whereby companies ranking in product searches is determined by how much they pay. Bing derides the practices as being "Scroogled," and said its approach provides consumers with more credible results.