Sales & Marketing

The resumption of top line growth at Stage Stores enabled the operator of 858 stores to reduce the size of its third quarter net loss, but CEO Michael Glazer is taking a cautious view of the holidays.

New York - Amazon is once again tops in online customer satisfaction, but its leadership is eroding, according to a study by Answers.com, a provider of  cloud-based customer experience solutions. Amazon is down four points from its 2013 score of 84 (on a 100-point scale), and leads QVC.com and Netflix by just one point. 

Amid an ongoing exploration of strategic alternatives, PetSmart said third quarter sales grew 2.6% thanks to the addition of 36 new stores as same store sales were flat.

Minneapolis — Target Corp. gained some momentum going into the holiday season with a third quarter that beat both Wall Street and internal expectations as sales as its U.S. stores exceeded estimates and its troubled Canadian division showed signs of improvement. Its results were also driven by increased promotional activity. This was Target’s first quarter under the leadership of CEO Brian Cornell, who replaced Gregg Steinhafel in August.   

It took a heightened level of promotional activity to drive marginally better than expected third quarter same store sales growth at Target’s U.S. stores while losses in Canada were less severe than the prior year.

New York, N.Y. - Perceptions about private label are overwhelmingly favorable. Almost three-quarters of global respondents (71%) say store-brand quality has improved over time, according to a new study by Nielsen.
Price is a primary driver of purchase intent among 70% of global respondents, but quality is important, too. Two-thirds (67%) believe private labels offer extremely good value for money.

Milwaukee, W.I. - Most shoppers believe that the best time to shop online for Black Friday deals is on Black Friday itself. However after examining data from the past two years, the staff of Black Friday site GottaDeal.com has determined that the best time to shop online is actually late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning.

Austin, Texas - Deals2Buy, a U.S. product offers website, is launching a new site design that streamlines navigation. New features include responsive design, expiration countdown for deals, “hottest” and “newest” deal categories, improved navigation, and sharing of deals on social media.