Retail

New York -- U.S. households plan to spend an average of $538 on gifts this holiday season, up slightly from $528 last year, The Conference Board reports today. About 8% of consumers say they plan to spend more this year on holiday gifts, while approximately 32% plan to spend less. The remaining 60% plan to spend about the same as last year.  

By Brian Mell, BannerView  

San Francisco –- New Seasons Market (NSM) is deploying the new Index online commerce personalization solution at its stores to deliver end-to-end security and personalized customer experiences. The collaboration with Index provides NSM with a real-time understanding of customer behavior while helping to deliver relevant product recommendations and shopping experiences that savvy consumers now expect both online and offline.

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot on Tuesday reported better-than-expected results for third quarter and raised its outlook for the year.    The retailer posted a profit of $29 million  for the third quarter compared with $133 million in the year-ago quarter. The previous-year quarter included a gain on the sale of the Office Depot de Mexico joint venture.   Sales grew 55% to $4.07 billion, fueled by the addition of OfficeMax.

Hangzhou, China –- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. reported net income of $494 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2014, down 39% from $803 million in the same quarter the prior year. Items including share-based compensation expense and the amortization of intangible assets helped drive down net income.  

New York -- New York & Company announced that John Worthington has joined the company as president and COO, effective immediately. Worthington will lead the company’s store operations, real estate, outlets, finance, IT, sourcing and logistics areas.  

To some folks, he’s an innovator, a genius who has fundamentally transformed the retail equation. To others, he’s a bully. And now Jeff Bezos has a new label: the world’s best-performing CEO.

The designation comes way of the Harvard Business Review’s 2014 ranking of the 100 best-performing CEOs. The list offers the only ranking of global CEOs’ performances over their entire tenure.

Atlanta -- Although 83% of consumers say most of their shopping takes place in-store, they still report a variety of disconnects between the in-store and online retail experience. According to a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers from electronic shelf label (ESL) technology vendor DisplayData, 44% of U.S. consumers think retailers offer different prices online and offline.