Loyalty Marketing

Ulta Beauty posted strong double-digit gains during its third quarter thanks in part to strength in sales of prestige cosmetics and skin care and strong online sales.

Sales for the quarter ended Oct. 27 rose 22.4% to $618.8 million. Same-store sales rose 6.8%, including the impact of e-commerce sales.

Net income increased 19.1% to $45.4 million compared with $38.2 million. Income per diluted share rose 18.6% to 70 cents per share, including 2 cents per diluted share related to a severance charge.

By Brett Conradt, [email protected]

Discount online shopping retailer Overstock.com has added prescription brand-name glasses and sunglasses to its website.

"Adding prescription eyewear to the Overstock website, with great names at great prices, seemed a natural fit," states Overstock.com chairman and CEO Patrick M. Byrne. "Unbeatable prices, fashionable styles, ease of ordering, stellar customer service, made the whole concept work for us and for our customers."

San Francisco -- Shopper traffic and window conversion improved significantly as heavy promotions brought shoppers back out to the mall. According to analysis of nearly 25 million domestic shopping sessions during November 2013 by in-store analytics provider Euclid, average visit durations were shorter than a year ago for the fourth month in a row as the increasingly omni-channel marketplace continued to drive more focused shopping trips.

St. Petersburg, Russia – Russian grocery chain Land is piloting Synqera Loyalty Generators, compact printing devices with interactive touch-screens at the entrance of each of the chosen piloting store locations, as well as Simplate devices at checkout, providing targeted content relevant to new and returning customers.

Newegg, a leading electronics-focused e-retailer in the United States, is leveraging its record-breaking Black November sales for its Marketplace Division to drive additional sales this holiday season.

Newegg Marketplace reported sales of 109% year-over-year, making this the second consecutive year of triple-digit growth.

Newegg has also added Cooking.com, eBags.com, Griffin Technology, Overstock.com, Samy's Camera, Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us to its Marketplace this year.

Washington, D.C. -- The retail industry will lose an estimated $8.76 billion to return fraud this year, and $3.39 billion during the holiday season alone, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2013 Return Fraud Survey. Overall, 5.8% of holiday returns are fraudulent, up slightly from 4.6% last year.

New York -- Verizon Enterprise Solutions is launching a new managed, cloud-based Wi-Fi for business solution aimed at retail and food service environments. The solution is designed to be easy to deploy while enabling businesses to improve customer service, customer loyalty and business processes.