eCommerce

City of Industry, Calif. -- On the heels of its Wednesday report that the company gained just 0.2% in October same-store sales, Hot Topic Inc. also announced plans to test a new store that will specialize in dark, edgy lingerie.

Called Blackheart, the concept will target the company’s core teen customer and will debut with five stores in southern California and Texas malls as well as online offerings beginning in mid-November.

Indianapolis -- Lids Sports Group announced Wednesday that its retail division will purchase 12 stores from Fanatics Inc., comprised of nine FansEdge locations in the Greater Chicago area as well as one in Oklahoma and two Football Fanatics in Jacksonville, Fla.



The locations will be rebranded under the Locker Room by LIDS retail banner, to include region-specific storefronts such as Chicago Locker Room and Oklahoma Locker Room.  

Los Angeles -- Survey results released Thursday by PriceGrabber revealed that 16% of consumers will shop using a mobile device during the holiday season, compared with 13% last year. Nearly all respondents indicated that they will do some online shopping from a computer.

The number of consumers who plan to visit brick-and-mortar stores dropped by two percentage points to 46% compared with last year.

New York -- The TJX Cos. turned in the strongest performance among the discounters in October, reporting a 7% comp sales increase on Thursday.

According to TJX CEO Carol Meyrowitz, the above-plan performance has prompted the retailer to raise its outlook for the third quarter and full year. “We believe the momentum we are seeing in all of our businesses … bode well for the holiday selling season,” she said.

TJX sales for the period advanced 11% to $2.1 billion.

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. -- Mid-America Asset Management Inc. said it has signed eight restaurant leases Greater Chicagoland shopping centers that the company represents. The leases total more than 42,000 sq. ft.

For Dempster Plaza in Niles, Ill., Mid-America leased 9,600 sq. ft. to Asia restaurant Niles Buffet, which will open in a former Old Country Buffet space in March 2013. The 180,000-sq.-ft. center is anchored by Home Depot, Portillo's and Jewel/Osco.

Alameda, Calif. -- Jamestown L.P., which owns Alameda (Calif.) South Shore Center, said that Go! Calendars/Go! Games has signed a four-month lease for a 2,356-sq. ft. space, beginning Oct. 1.

The company operates a year-round online store, but opens approximately 1,000 storefronts in malls during the holiday season.

The 594,000-sq.-ft., open-air Alameda South Shore Center offers a pop-up leasing strategy to accommodate temporary tenants, including Go! Calendars/Go! Games and, most recently, Pedal Beach, a beach rental and supply store.

New York -- Winick Realty Group said that discount chain Deal$ has signed a lease for 10,624 sq. ft. at 301 West 145th St., located on the southeast corner of Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

The store, which is scheduled to open in spring 2013, sits at the base of The Langston Condominium, a sold-out, 179-unit luxury residential building that already houses retail tenants such as Bank of America, Starbucks and New York Sport Club.

Deal$ is an affiliate of Dollar Tree Stores.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Baker & Taylor, a distributor of digital and physical books and entertainment products, announced that it has enhanced its popular Axis 360 digital media platform by releasing a mobile version. The mobile version of Axis 360 is designed to leverage the functionality of native Web browsers built into multi-function devices, smartphones and tablets running on the iOS, Android and BlackBerry operating systems.

Leading payment processor Vantiv said it signed an agreement to acquire Litle & Co., a leading mobile payment processor in a deal valued at $361 million.

According to Vantiv president and CEO, Charles Drucker, the deal makes sense because e-commerce is one of the fastest growing segments of payments.

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- Multichannel retailer HSN Inc. reported Wednesday that net income for the third quarter dropped 27.2% to $17.7 million, from $24.3 million in the year-ago period. Results still beat Wall Street projections.

Revenue rose 7.1% to $778.8 million, beating analysts’ estimated $747.1 million in revenue.

The company has now seen profit fall in two consecutive quarters, but it has beaten Wall Street estimates for three quarters in a row.