Supply Chain & Merchandising

San Francisco — In-store holiday sales during December 2013 are expected to come out ahead of in-store holiday sales during the same month in the previous year. Retail analytics provider Euclid analyzed nearly 25 million domestic shopping sessions during December, revealing that shopper traffic and window conversion improved as heavy promotions kept holiday shoppers coming.

Fewer sales of flu shots and prescription drugs at Rite Aid led to same-store script count decreases. However, the company reported increases in net and same-store sales for December.

City of Commerce, Calif. — 99 Cents Only Stores opens its first store in Waco, Texas on Thursday, Jan. 9. The new store is approximately 13,000 square feet and will feature a perishable food department, including produce, dairy and frozen foods.

99 Cents Only Stores currently operates 339 extreme value retail stores consisting of 244 stores in California, 45 in Texas, 33 in Arizona, and 17 in Nevada.

Raj Jain, the former head of a joint venture between Walmart and Bharti Enterprises, has joined Bharti Retail as CEO.

Jain spent six years with the joint venture, Bharti Walmart, most recently serving as president of Walmart India. He left the joint venture in June 2013, four months before Walmart and Bharti announced they would independently pursue retail opportunities in India.

Joining Jain at Bharti Retail is his former joint venture colleague Panka Madan who will serve as CFO. Madan also served as CFO of Bharti Walmart but left the joint venture in 2012.

When U.S. retailers launch global e-commerce efforts, they often start with countries that have a long-standing trade history with America. Shipments to Canada are soon followed by expansion into the United Kingdom, Australia or other English-speaking areas.

Some organizations stick with this strategy — where few barriers to entry, cultural similarities and overall market understanding provide for a “safe” selling environment.

Bentonville, Ark. — Wal-Mart is reportedly recalling donkey meat it sells in China after testing revealed the meat contained fox DNA. According to Bloomberg, Wal-Mart detected fox DNA in samples of donkey meat from Chinese supplier Dezhou Fujude Food Company Ltd., and has since withdrawn all products from the company from its shelves.

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. — Cole Real Estate Investments has acquired The Shoppes on South Main in Bowling Green, Ohio, according to Mid-America Real Estate Corp.’s (www.midamericagrp.com) investment sales team, the firm that brokered the transaction on behalf of the seller, Chase Properties.

The 110,769-sq.-ft. shopping center features anchor tenants T.J. Maxx, Staples, Petco and Dollar General. Home Depot and a Wal-Mart Supercenter shadow anchor the center.

This holiday season was one of the first real opportunities for retailers to flex their omnichannel muscle. A shorter-than-usual holiday season, combined with ongoing economic uncertainty, led consumers to turn to a variety of shopping channels in their search for the most efficient and cost-effective way to round out their gifting lists. Likewise, many shoppers also demonstrated a desire to return products across these various channels. But were retailers ready?