Data & Analytics

Fort Myers, Fla. – Chico’s FAS reported declining net income during the third quarter of fiscal 2013 even as net sales grew. Net income totaled $35.8 million, down 15% from $42 million in the same period a year earlier.

Columbus, Ohio – DSW Inc. experienced a successful third quarter of fiscal 2013, with net income and total sales both rising from the same period in the previous year. Net income equaled $55 million, up roughly 10% from $50.1 million, while total sales of $633 million were about 7% higher than $593 million.

In one negative result, same-store sales fell 0.7%. However, the retailer opened 16 new stores and launched new omni-channel initiatives.

Plano, Texas – Myron Ullman, CEO of embattled department store chain J.C. Penney, has reportedly bought $1 million of company stock. According to the Associated Press, Ullman purchased 112,000 shares at $8.95 apiece on or around Nov. 22.

Los Angeles – A majority of the 348,235 tweets about Black Friday posted between Friday, Nov. 22 and Sunday, Nov. 24 were either positive or neutral in sentiment. According to analysis from social media research firm Fizziology, tweets about Black Sunday the weekend of Nov. 22-24 were 47% positive, 11% negative, 3% mixed and 39% neutral (from retailers/promotions).

Toronto -- RBC, Best Buy and Future Shop are partnering to offer a redemption option in Canada that provides clients access to more than 90,000 merchandise and electronic items, through the RBC Rewards online channel.

Boston – College students are planning to buy holiday gifts that offer experiential value or economic flexibility and will frequent discount stores, according to a new survey of roughly 1,000 college students from consumer marketing firm Fluent.

Richmond Hill, Ontario – Cross-channel fulfillment programs are the top omni-channel priorities among retailers, a newly released study of 337 global retail decision-makers, “The Retail Order Management Imperative,” conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of OrderDynamics, revealed.

While only 49% of retailers currently use an order management system, many of these solutions are ill-equipped to support complex cross-channel fulfillment offerings.

The Woodlands, Texas -- Conn's, Inc. has completed an expansion and extension of its asset-based loan facility with a syndicate of banks.

Undeterred by volatility in its sales results, leading footwear retailer DSW maintained its pace of expansion and opened 16 new stores to end the third quarter with 393 locations.

The operator of large format footwear stores that average about 22,000-sq.-ft., said its third quarter sales declined 0.7% while total sales increased 6.8% to $633 million due to the addition of the new stores. The third quarter comp decline is the latest development in what has been a tumultuous year from a sales standpoint.

The Children's Place president and CEO Jane Elfers focused on the positive following decreases in net and comparable-store sales for the third quarter, despite the company’s reportedly strong performance during the back-to-school period.