Sales & Marketing

The Westfield Group has agreed to purchase the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s remaining 50% interest in the World Trade Center’s retail square footage. The purchase price is US$800 million. Following the transaction, expected to close early next year, Westfield will own 100% of the retail space, which totals 365,000 sq. ft.

Black Friday social mentions more than doubled those of Cyber Monday this year. But a new infographic from SAP shows that consumers felt the most excited and happy about Cyber Monday.

Los Angeles — Retail rents in the world’s most expensive markets will rise further in 2014 due to a shortage of available prime locations combined with a lack of new development, according to CBRE Group’s third quarter report on the world’s prime global retail markets.

Hong Kong (US$4,333 per sq. ft.) remains the world’s most expensive retail market by a substantial margin. Hong Kong houses the highest representation of luxury retailers among all global cities. With a healthy tourist market and a lack of available space.

Washington, D.C. -- The retail industry will lose an estimated $8.76 billion to return fraud this year, and $3.39 billion during the holiday season alone, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2013 Return Fraud Survey. Overall, 5.8% of holiday returns are fraudulent, up slightly from 4.6% last year.

Chad Kessler was named chief merchandising and design officer at American Eagle Outfitters after the company reported a big decline in third-quarter profits and said it expects fourth quarter same-store sales to decline.

Los Angeles -- International payment and business development platform Payelp Global is partnering with mobile payment service Onebip, part of global mobile commerce group Neomobile.

Plano, Texas – Rent-A-Center plans to rebrand the kiosks it operates within third-party retail locations across the country.

Operating under the RAC Acceptance brand since being launched in 2006, the kiosks will transition to the AcceptanceNow brand. Existing kiosks, of which there are over 1,300, will convert in January 2014. Kiosks slated to open this month will immediately adopt the AcceptanceNow name.

New York -- Target is testing a section of its website that features products popular on Pinterest.

The Target Awesome Shop includes products from several lines, including beauty, each of which is among those most-pinned on Pinterest in the last few days. The products are mentioned only if they have at least a four-star guest review.

The website is currently in beta testing and was put together "in a matter of a few weeks" by Target's Rapid Accelerated Development team, a small group of digital experts working for the company.