News

Retailers are doing a good job online when it comes to sales, but they are failing when it comes protecting sensitive shopper data.   All of the nation’s largest retailers had multiple issues with domain security, which increases the risk of hackers impersonating a retailer's site and falsifying a checkout form to obtain a user's credit card information, according to a report by security rating firm SecurityScoreboard that exposes cybersecurity vulnerabilities across 48 of the biggest U.S holiday retailers. 

While mobile commerce flexed its muscle during Cyber Week, desktop shoppers keep representing this holiday season — and in a strong way.  

An unknown donor brought holiday cheer to some Walmart customers in Pennsylvania.     A mystery person under the name "Santa B" paid off $46,265.59 in layaway items at Walmart’s store in Everett, Pennsylvania, CNBC reported. The amount covered the balances on 149 layaway accounts.    

Restoration Hardware reported better-than-expected earnings and sales for the third quarter, but the upscale home furnishings retailer cut its full-year outlook amid slow sales of its holiday collection.    The company also said that its name will change in January to RH, which is the same as its stock ticker.   Restoration Hardware reported net income of $2.5 million. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were 19 cents per share.  

Amazon knows Thanksgiving weekend shoppers are typically bargain hunters, yet the company became increasingly less price dynamic as the weekend wore on.    That’s according to an infographic from 360pi, which examined the promotional and pricing strategies of Amazon, Walmart and Target, among others, during Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.   

Costco Wholesale Corp. a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped partially by lower fees to credit card partner Visa.   Costco, which completed its switch to Visa from American Express during the fourth quarter, said net income rose to $545 million, or $1.24 per share, in the first quarter, ended Nov. 20, from $480 million, or $1.09 per share, in the year-ago period. (The retailer’s profit in the latest quarter included a $51 million gain from a legal settlement.)  

(Ed. note: Neil Saunders, CEO of Conlumino, comments on Sears Holdings’ third-quarter results.)   In the movie Titanic there is a line where, realizing chaos is about to en-sue, one character helpfully notes “it’s starting to fall apart; we don’t have much time”. Such a sentiment could well be applied to Sears. The analogy with Titanic is also apt; not least because while Sears was once a titan of US retail, it now looks set to sink.