Data & Analytics

North Bergen, N.J. – Vitamin Shoppe reported net income of $16.3 million during the third quarter of fiscal 2013, flat with the same quarter in the prior year. The retailer also reported a 14% increase in total net sales, to $272.5 million from $239 million, as well as a 2.6% jump in same-store sales.

Pittsburgh – Dick’s Sporting Goods and ESPN have entered a multi-year agreement in which Dick’s will serve as the exclusive e-commerce provider of licensed merchandise and sporting goods on ESPN.com and related digital properties.

Los Angeles – A large number of shoppers do not appear to be setting aside any money for holiday spending this year, and four in 10 do not even intend to do any shopping for the upcoming holiday season.

According to recent GoBankingRates.com polls, more than 63% of respondents didn't allocate any savings toward holiday gift buying. In addition, more than 40% of respondents said they would not be buying holiday gifts this year at all.

Other findings include:

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens had October sales of $6.37 billion, an increase of 6.1% from $6 billion for the same month in fiscal 2013. Same-store sales improved 5.8%.

Calendar day shifts negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.3%age point, while generic drug introductions in the last 12 months negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.7%age point. Walgreens opened 14 stores during October, including four relocations, and closed two.

Dodgeville, Wis. – Lands’ End will offer free shipping to all customers on purchases more than $50 as part of its standard customer offerings. U.S. customers will also have the option to upgrade to two-day UPS shipping for $5.

Houston – Men’s Wearhouse is building on an existing implementation of Manhattan Associates’ order management solution with Manhattan's order management and store inventory management solutions.

Montreal -- Canadian footwear retailer Groupe Yellow has selected the Epicor Retail Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to support the organization’s retail operations. Yellow has also signed on as the first SaaS customer to deploy Epicor Retail Sourcing and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) as a hosted solution.

LeapFrog Enterprises is rolling into the holiday with its strongest product lineup ever but concerns about consumer spending have the leading educational entertainment company tempering its view of fourth quarter sales.

CVS, which posted a solid third quarter across its enterprise, is well-positioned to benefit from the rapidly changing healthcare environment. That was a key message that CVS president and CEO Larry Merlo had for analysts during the company’s third-quarter conference call.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in October 2012 versus October 2013 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. Although Home Depot and Lowe’s continued to see large year-over-year changes, these shifts have been consistent throughout the past few months: the new sizes and densities of circulars within the home improvement channel have solidified. Lowe’s now features lengthy circulars with few ads per page, while Home Depot typically runs shorter, denser circulars.