Sales & Marketing

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Mars will receive the 2012 NASCAR Marketing Achievement Award at the NASCAR NMPA Myers Brothers Awards held at Encore at Wynn Las Vegas Thursday, Nov. 29.

Protests by organized labor failed to materialize in a meaningful way at Walmart stores over the weekend and the retailer went on to achieve record results.

Retailers may as well start devising their 2013 Black Friday plans now based on the popularity of this year’s early openings on Thanksgiving.

The Thanksgiving evening openings by the likes of Walmart, Toys ‘R’ Us, Target, Sears and Kmart were denounced in some quarters as being anti-family, but a few vocal critics didn’t speak for the majority of shoppers who turned out in droves and spent with gusto.

Online shopping surged 26% on Black Friday to surpass $1 billion for the first time, according to the digital measurement firm comScore.

Whatever your political views may be, it’s hard not to think about the impact of the recent presidential election on the consumer psyche, and ultimately our industry. Whether President Obama or Mitt Romney would have been better for the economy in the long run is an issue I’ll gladly leave to the political experts and historians. But I do think that, in the near term, we are less likely to see the big holiday spending numbers that some analysts were predicting.

Dallas -- Zale Corp. reported a bigger-than-expected first-quarter loss on Tuesday, but said it is on track to turn a profit again.

The jewelry retailer lost $28.3 million for the quarter that ended Oct. 31, compared to a year-ago loss of $31.9 million.

Revenue rose 1.8% to $357.5 million. Same store sales rose 3.9%. It was the chain’s eighth consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales.

Wayne, N.J. – Toys “R” Us announced it has strengthened its global e-commerce capabilities with the launch of a dedicated web store in China. The company also announced the development of mobile-optimized sites and apps in 11 markets around the world, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, and the U.K. In the coming months, the retailer will introduce the same capabilities in Portugal, Austria and Switzerland, as well as the Netherlands, where it does not currently have a store presence.
 

The footwear category is one fire judging from the recent performance of two leading retailers.

Brown Shoe Co., operator of 1,300 Famous Footwear and Naturalizer stores, said its same store sales for the quarter ended October 27 increased 6.8% and adjusted earnings increased 18.3% to $25.9 million or 51 cents a share.

Rival DSW, operator of 364 stores, said its same stores sales for the third quarter ended October 27 increased 6.1% and adjusted net income increased 17% to $46.6 million, or $1.02 per share,.