Sales & Marketing

A cold spring helped dampen sales and earnings at one of the nation’s leading apparel companies.
 
Ascena Retail, whose brands include Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant, Catherines, Justice and Dressbarn, reported profit of $15 million in the third quarter, ended April 23, down from $24 million in the year-ago period.
 

The e-commerce landscape just shifted with the announcement Salesforce will purchase Demandware for $2.8 billion.
 
Demandware’s recently enhanced flagship Commerce Cloud platform is one of the leading e-commerce solutions on the market. Notable retail Demandware users include Lands’ End, Marks & Spencer, Urban Decay, and True Religion. According to figures released by IHL in December 2015, Demandware is the number two retail SaaS company by installed revenue, trailing only Microsoft.
 

The 95-year old co-founder of the North Carolina-based supermarket chain that became Food Lion has died at the age of 95.
 
Ralph Ketner and two others in 1957 founded Food Town, which changed its name to Food Lion in 1982.  

Fred’s on Thursday reported its earnings for the first quarter ended April 30, posting an 8% increase in total sales and a net income of $1.3 million. The company saw comparable store sales increase 1% for the first quarter, which is slightly better than the 0.8% increase in comps it posted in Q1 2015. 

The story of the “mobile first” generation isn’t a new one. Retailers have been told for years that mobile should be at the forefront of business strategy in order to meet consumers’ evolving expectations.
 
Yet, there appears be a disconnect between existing mobile experiences and consumer sentiment.
 

J.C. Penney Co. said Wednesday it is proposing to refinance a $2.25 billion senior secured term loan, and to extend the maturity of the loan, which is currently set at May 2018. The transaction is expected to be complete in June.

Penney also reported positive same-store sales for its quarter-to-date through Memorial Day.
 

Ahold USA first quarter sales were up 4% to $8.2 billion. Excluding gas, sales increased 4.1% at constant exchange rates. The addition of 25 A&P stores in the New York Metro market in fourth quarter 2015 was the main contributor to the overall sales growth and resulted in an overall market share improvement in both dollars and volume, Ahold reported.

Walmart is reviving a familiar icon to be the symbol of its low-price marketing.

The discounter announced it is bringing back its yellow smiley image, which has been in hibernation for some 10 years. The image can already be seen in some digital advertising and will expand to television ads and select in-store signage next week.