Data & Analytics

SAN FRANCISCO — Williams-Sonoma Inc. said Thursday it has cut its fiscal Q4 earnings outlook below Wall Street expectations due to heavy holiday promotions levels.

The company said it had to offer discounts to entice shoppers this holiday season. Although earnings guidance has been reduced to below expectations, Williams-Sonoma’s revenue outlook remains in line with Wall Street, trimmed to a range of $1.24 billion to $1.26 billion. The company had previously expected revenue as high as $1.27 billion.

NEW YORK — Kohl's is the recipient of the People’s Pick award in The Harris Poll Customer Relationship Series, conducted by Harris Interactive. The award cognizes the strength of consumers' bonds with mid-tier department stores and reflects the customers' connections and future intentions.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target's board of directors has approved a new $5 billion share repurchase program, which will be implemented upon the completion of the company's current $10 billion program.

Target said while it expects to complete its current program early this year, it expects to complete the new $5 billion authorization in the next two to three years, saying the program "represents an opportunity to apply excess cash flow to what [the company believes] will be an attractive long-term investment."

COMMERCE, Calif. — Sales at 99-Cents Only Stores rose 10.6% to $403.9 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 over sales of $365.4 milllion for the same quarter last year.  

The company's overall same-store sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 increased 8.5%. The number of same-store-sales transactions increased 5.6% and the average transaction size increased to $9.86 from $9.59.

INDIANAPOLIS — Electronics retailer Hhgregg announced that it has lowered its third-quarter forecast, reflecting weakness in the video category.

The company said that fiscal third quarter comparable-store sales are estimated to have increased 3.9%, with the video category expected to have decreased 4.8%, the appliance category expected to have increased 6.8%, the home office category expected to have increased 91.4% and the other category expected to have decreased 7.1%. 

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Discovery Communications announced that has named formed Liz Claiborne executive Andrew Warren to the position of senior EVP and CFO. Warren will join Discovery on March 26, and will be based at the company's global headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. Warren succeeds Brad Singer who previously announced that he is leaving Discovery at the end of March.

Following a wild ride during Black Friday, the last month of the year in 2011 saw most retailers maintaining similar levels of promotional activities when compared to 2010. The majority of advertisers either saw slight increases in circular and page counts or stayed flat. When looking at both page counts and circular drops overall there was not much change, with a 2% decrease in number of pages and a 1% drop in number of inserts per market. 

The annual consumer electronics extravaganza known as CES gets underway in Las Vegas today, and in conjunction with the show’s kick off Market Research Solutions (MRS) is out with a new report that provides some unconventional insights into the 2011 holiday season and outlook for 2012.