Sales & Marketing

The National Retail Federation is calling on Congress to pass Trade Promotion Authority legislation, which Congress is expected to debate this week.

Asheville, N.C. – A significant increase in gain from the disposal of assets helped boost net income 37% at Ingles Markets Inc. in the second quarter of fiscal 2015 to $14.3 million, from $10.5 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Lower gasoline prices helped reduce net sales 3% to $915.3 million, from $947.76 million.

Excluding gasoline, same-store sales rose 1.2%.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation has released an op-ed article by association president and CEO Matthew Shay strongly urging Congress to pass Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation. Congress is expected to debate the bill this week.

Here is the article by Shay:  

By Nader Fathi

New York – Subscription retailers outpace e-commerce retailers and flash sale businesses by a long shot when it comes to a customer’s average numbers of orders in the span of a year. According to analysis of more than 10 million orders from 2.5 million unique customers by Retention Science, subscription retailers average 7.68 orders per customer in 12 months.

In contrast, e-commerce retailers only average 2.36 orders per customer in 12 months, and flash sale retailers only average 1.41 orders in that time span.

Austin, Texas – Epicor Software Corp. is spinning off its retail solutions business into a separate, privately held company, in partnership with funds advised by Apax Partners. Referred to as “SpinCo” until the transaction is finalized, the Epicor retail solutions business continues under the leadership of Noel Goggin, executive VP and general manager.

Toys”R”Us is looking to excite toy shoppers with an all-new assortment of toys from Fisher-Price based on the hit Nickelodeon show, “Blaze and the Monster Machines.”

The show features the heroic monster truck, Blaze, his 8-year-old driver, AJ, and many other characters helping preschoolers learn Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) concepts. The Toys line of road-ready vehicles, die-cast and plush are available only at Toys"R"Us stores nationwide and Toysrus.com, now through the end of July.

Surging sales at Old Navy helped Gap Inc. offset sales declines at its namesake division and its Banana Republic stores in the first quarter.

Gap Inc. reported that for the first quarter of fiscal 2015, Gap Inc.’s net sales decreased 3% to $3.66 billion compared with $3.77 billion for the first quarter last year.