Sales & Marketing

Walmart declared an early Black Friday victory and reported record Cyber Monday sales, but the big box retailer is not done yet. Starting at 8 a.m. Friday, it is launching its Christmas Countdown Savings Event and dropping prices on popular toys, electronics, apparel and table games.

With only 12 days to shop before Christmas, the strategy aims to drive last-minute shoppers to both its stores and e-commerce site.

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Deliv, the same-day delivery company, announced alliances with three of America’s largest mall operators, Simon Property Group, Macerich, and Westfield, to provide the convenience of same-day service to shoppers in malls across the U.S. starting this holiday season. This follows a similar same-day delivery partnership announcement from General Growth Properties (GGP).

Retailers usually measure 
the success of project spending by ROI, or "return on investment." ROI measures how many dollars you get back for every dollar you invest. This is a prudent and necessary way of justifying investment in things like IT systems, facilities and processes.

But not everything of value can be measured by simple dollars and cents. How do you measure the return on hope given to hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged children, both in the United States and around the world?

New York -- Ulta Beauty’s net income increased 19.1% to $45.4 million in the third quarter, amid strong 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.

During the quarter, e-commerce sales grew 74.4%, representing 170 basis points of the total company same-store sales increase.

Last week Walmart made headlines when it opened two stores in Washington D.C., drawing a small group of protestors and countless customers. But it seems like these Walmart locations are not quite like the others. BuzzFeed compiled a list of 19 things that make D.C.’s first Walmart stores stand out from the rest.

Click here to read the list.

New York -- Amazon.com is the most popular U.S. online retail site when it comes to having web content shared on Pinterest, the pin-board style social network, in the run up to Christmas 2013. The findings come from a study by digital marketing software and services specialist Searchmetrics.

In a study of ten top U.S. retail sites, images and pages from Amazon.com are being shared most frequently on Pinterest, with Walmart and Apple taking second and third positions respectively.

The recession took a major toll on the retail real estate sector but, despite waffling consumer confidence, the sector continues to improve. Retail now accounts for 19% of total U.S. investment volume year-to-date 2013.

Retail experts from Jones Lang LaSalle predict four key forces that will drive an increase in the retail transaction market during 2014:

1. Strengthening Fundamentals  

Lululemon’s increases in net revenue, gross profit and comparable-store sales beat expectations, but shares slid after the company said it anticipates flat comparable-store sales in the fourth quarter.

According to reports, shares dropped 10.7% to $61 after the company posted its financial results for the third quarter ended Nov. 3, which saw net revenue increase 20% to $379.9 million from $316.5 million in last year’s third quarter. Comparable-store sales in the quarter increased 5%.