Sales & Marketing

New York -- Discounters, which are expected to fare well this holiday season, showed mixed results in November. TJX Cos. reported Thursday that November same-store sales climbed 3%, missing Wall Street’s expected 3.6% rise but beating the retailer’s internal expectations.

Target Corp. saw same-store sales fall in November, hurt by weak sales during the first two weeks. Comps dipped 1%, while Wall Street expected a 2.1% gain. Revenue for the month was essentially flat.

TJX Companies reported a 3% comp increase on top of a prior year gain of 4% while Ross Stores said posted a comp increase of 2% compared to last November’s 5% comp increase.

Total sales at TJX increased 7% to $2.2 billion during the November reporting period and so far this year sales at the company have advanced 10% to $20.3 billion. Total sales for November at Ross increased 6% to $813 million and so far this year are up 11% to nearly $7.8 billion.

New York -- Facebook said referral traffic to retail sites from Facebook on Cyber Monday increased 240%, compared to average referral traffic for the last several Mondays.

Among  U.S. retailers, Walmart, Toys “R” Us, Macy’s, Amazon and Converse were the five most talked-about brands on Black Friday, according to Facebook’s People Talking About metric.

NCR agreed to pay $30 a share to acquire retail software and service provider Retalix in a deal valued at $650 million.

New York -- Aeropostale reported Thursday that profit for the third quarter rose to $24.9 million, from $24.1 million last year.
 
Sales increased 2% to $605.9 million, beating Wall Street’s expected $601.2 million. Same-store sales dipped 2%.

A worse than expected 1% decline in November same store sales indicates the holiday season is off to a slow start at Target.

The 1% decline was substantially worse than the low single digit increase the company forecast at the start of the month when it reported a 2.4% increase for October that was toward the low end of guidance. The November weakness suggest traffic trends may be deteriorating at Target as the company said blamed the decline on a decrease in comparable store transactions following that metric’s flat performance in October.

Santa Monica, Calif. -- Mobile payment platform provider Kuapay said Thursday it has launched a new payment system at 14 KFC/Taco Bell restaurants in the Los Angeles area.

Duapay and franchisee Great American Chicken Corp launched the system in order to make smartphone ordering and payment faster and easier. The launch follows a two-month pilot program and encompasses locations in Los Angeles County, Orange County and the Ontario area.

New York -- Tiffany & Co. reported Thursday that net income for the quarter ended Oct. 31 plummeted 30% to $63.2 million from $89.7 million, hurt by higher costs and tax rates as well as continued economic softness.

Revenue climbed 4% to $852.7 million, missing Wall Street’s expected $858.8 million in sales. By region, sales rose 6% in Europe and 3% in the Americas.

The retailer has cut its full-year earnings forecast.