Business Analytics

Foothill Ranch, Calif. -- Wet Seal recorded a loss of $14.9 million for the fiscal 2013 third quarter, essentially flat with last year.

Sales dipped to $127.7 million from $135.5 million, and same-store edged up 0.8%, including an increase of 1.7% at Wet Seal and a decrease of 6.7% at Arden B.

Although sales at Express during Thanksgiving week exceeded last year's, results did not meet the company’s expectations and it’s bracing itself for a tough holiday shopping season.

The specialty retail apparel chain operating approximately 630 stores reported net sales of $503 million, an increase of 7% from $468.5 million in the third quarter of 2012. Comparable sales increased 5% versus a decline of 5% in last year's third quarter. E-commerce sales increased 29% to $71.2 million this quarter, above last year's third quarter increase of 21%.

Armonk, N.Y. - Shoppers made Cyber Monday 2013 the biggest online shopping day in history with a 20.6% increase in online sales. The latest cloud-based analytics findings from IBM show that mobile sales led the way, exceeding 17% of total online sales, an increase of 55.4% year-over-year.

Cyber Monday also capped what IBM data indicates is the highest five-day online sales period on record from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, which grew 16.5% from the same period in 2012.

San Jose, Calif. – Cyber Monday sales set a new record at $2.29 billion online, representing 16% year-over-year (YoY) growth. New Adobe Digital Index 2013 data also indicates a record 18.3% of sales came from mobile devices, an increase of 80% YoY.

Additional data and findings of the Adobe Digital Index online shopping analysis include:

Suffern, N.Y. – Ascena Retail Group, parent company of Lane Bryant and Justice, reported net income of $52.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014, a 22% increase from $43.1 million a year earlier.

Net sales totaled roughly $1.2 billion, a 5% increase from about $1.14 billion.

Evansville, Ind. – Shoe Carnival had a generally disappointing third quarter fiscal 2013, with net income falling 11% to $10.9 million from $12.2 million. Net sales also declined 3.5%, from $244.4 million to $235.8 million.

Shoe Carnival attributed part of the year-over-year decline to a shift from a 53-week to a 52-week fiscal year, which resulted in one fewer week of back-to-school shopping activity in the third quarter and about $21.2 million less in sales.

Omaha, Neb. – Gordman’s Stores reported declining net income even as net income grew in the third quarter of fiscal 2013. Net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 was $1.1 million, down 72.5% from net income of $4 million in the third quarter of the prior year.

New York -- Cyber Monday online sales are up 17.5% over the same period last year as of 6 p.m. EST on Monday, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark.

Mobile traffic accounted for 29.4% of all online traffic, up almost 62% compared to the same period last year.

In other findings from IBM:

Leading global beauty company Coty has appointed Patrice de Talhouët as CFO. He will replace Sergio Pedreiro who will stay on at Coty through March 2014 to provide a seamless transition for de Talhouët, as well as to complete Coty's fiscal 2014 second quarter earnings release.

Ascena Retail Group, parent company of Lane Bryant, Dressbarn and Justice, may have just reported same store sales growth across all its formats and achieved Thanksgiving weekend sales objectives, but president and CEO David Jaffe remains cautious in his outlook for the remainder of the holiday season.

As so many other retailers have noted in recent weeks, Jaffe said this year’s highly competitive, promotional and compressed holiday season makes it difficult to know how the next few weeks will play out, despite the company’s recent performance.