Sales & Marketing

NEW YORK - Barnes & Noble reported preliminary bookstore holiday comparable-store sales of 9.7% for the nine-week period ending Jan. 1. Driven by the company’s Nook e-reading device product line, Barnes & Noble bookstores said it achieved its largest retail sales day ever in the company’s nearly 40-year history on December 23, 2010. 

Not sure why parents of a newborn would want to share images of their child with throngs of people gathered in Times Square or motorists in Los Angeles, but in these celebrity-obsessed and digitally-enabled times a lot of behaviors defy logic.

Be that as it may, Target devised a novel brand-building campaign that allowed parent to essentially share images of their baby with a universe of complete strangers as opposed to the more discrete tradition of limiting viewings to family and a close knit group of friends.

With Target set to release December sales results this Thursday, the issue isn’t whether the company’s results will be in line with expectations but the degree by which they are likely to exceed same-store sales guidance in the low- to mid-single digit range.

Holiday shoppers continued to unleash three years of pent-up demand as the season winds up, on their way to setting a new record of over $521B, blasting through 2007’s pre-recession record of $508 billion, according to Customer Growth Partners. Based on CGP’s proprietary mall surveys and government retail data -- and despite Sunday’s Northeast blizzard -- the sales growth confirmed CGP’s +5% holiday sales forecast. [CGP’s data include e-commerce, unlike NRF, which excludes the same.]

Reston, Va. -- A record $30.81 billion was spent online for the first 56 days of the November/December 2010 holiday season, marking a 13% increase versus the corresponding days last year, according to comScore. The most recent week (ending Dec. 26) witnessed $2.45 billion in spending, an increase of 17% versus the corresponding week last year.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- While many e-retailers had a holiday to celebrate, customer satisfaction with the Top 40 online retailers overall has fallen since last year, according to the sixth annual ForeSee Results E-Retail Satisfaction Index (U.S. Holiday Edition).

Chicago -- Total GAFO retail sales for Christmas week (week ending Dec. 25) slipped 4.1% compared with last year, while the company’s retail traffic index (SRTI) reported a 6.8% total U.S. foot traffic decline for the same period, according to ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE). The 2010 calendar shift that placed Dec. 26 on a Sunday as opposed to a Saturday last year had the greatest impact on overall performance.