Sales & Marketing

San Francisco -- Gap Inc.’s sales slump continued in August across all its brands with one notable exception. The retailer said that it wasn’t helped by a late Labor Day, with the holiday falling in September this year, as opposed to August last year.

Gap's global same-store sales fell 8%, compared to a 6% decrease for the year prior, while Banana Republic had a 11% drop compared to 6% last year. Old Navy continued its winning streak, with a same-store sales rose 6% on top of a 2% increase for the prior year.

Photo: The Cordish Companies and the City of Norfolk (Virginia) broke ground recently on Waterside District, a redevelopment of the waterfront.

Armonk, N.Y. – Consumers are mobilizing for back-to-school shopping in a very literal way.

Mobile sales were up nearly 42% in August, reaching 25.3% of all online sales, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark data.

During this time, consumers also used their mobile devices to browse deals, with traffic accounting for 49.4% of all online traffic, up more than 19% compared to the same period year.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores Inc. posted declining profits and revenues in a generally difficult second quarter of fiscal 2015.

The retailer plans to close 40-50 underperforming stores by the end of the year, on top of 63 underperforming locations closed in the first half of 2015.

The True Value Company family has expanded with the addition of Pittsburgh-based Busy Beaver Home Improvement Centers.

Livonia, Mich. -- It’s Labor Day, time to start thinking about Halloween.

In anticipation of one it calls of the largest retail holidays in the U.S., costume superstore, Halloween City, is creating thousands of temporary jobs to staff the hundreds of Halloween City stores now opening across the country.

The retailer is recruiting up to 10,000 new employees to fill temporary management and store associate positions nationwide.

From American Idol winner a decade ago to one of the biggest names in entertainment, Carrie Underwood will add extra star power to the 14th annual Belk Bowl football game slated for December 30.

San Jose, Calif. -- The back-to-school season traditionally gives retailers a much-needed boost, bringing traffic into stores in August. How did things turn out this year?

Not so great it turns out, according to RetailNext Inc., which provides retail analytics for brick-and-mortar stores. The firm’s, monthly Retail Performance Pulse revealed a 7.3% year-over-year decrease in sales on a 9.9% decline in traffic at physical stores for the retail month of August (Aug. 2 through Aug. 29 on the retail 4-5-4 calendar).