News

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is doubling the amount of its share buyback authorization from $5 billion to $10 billion. Under this authorization, through first quarter 2015, the company had invested a total of $3.7 billion to retire 56.9 million shares at an average price of $65.06 per share.

New York -- Twitter announced on Wednesday that its advertisers can use the data the social giant has been collecting on which apps its users download for targeted ads.

Plus-size apparel retailer Torrid is launching a national quest to discover the new full-figured face for the brand.

Casting for the Face of Torrid 2016 kicked off this month at Torrid.com/modelsearch and will be followed this summer with live casting events in five major Torrid markets: Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Saks Off 5th helped its parent, Hudson’s Bay Co., increase same store sales in the first quarter, although the company did report a larger loss.

HBC reported that for the first quarter ended May 2, same store sales increased 2.7%. The company posted a loss of $44 million, compared with a profit of C$176 million, or 97 Canadian cents, a year earlier. Adjusted to exclude restructuring and other items, the loss was C$33 million, up from a comparable C$27 million loss a year earlier. Sales rose 11.7 percent to C$2.07 billion.

Houston – Increased selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) led to net income at Francesca’s Holdings Corp. dropping 18% to $7.24 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 from $8.56 million the same period a year earlier.

Net sales fared better, rising 11% to $95.01 million from $85.42 million, helped by the opening of 76 new stores in the preceding 12 months.

Same-store sales declined 2% due to lower transaction count, although direct-to-consumer sales rose 19%.

Kohl's and Disney's "Frozen" were among the winners at the LIMA International Licensing Awards.

In a ceremony held this week at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Kohl's Department Stores received the Retailer of the Year award for its in-store presentation of Frozen.

In addition, Jakks Pacific tied with Playmate Toys' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles product line for the win in the Film, Television or Entertainment (Animated) Licensee: Hard Goods category for its Disney Frozen Snow Glow Elsa doll.

San Mateo, Calif. – Cloud-based software provider NetSuite Inc. has completed the acquisition of Bronto Software Inc., a cloud-based commerce marketing company. The acquisition brings together cloud-based omnichannel commerce and marketing automation solutions.

Bronto Software provides the commerce marketing automation platform used by more than 1,400 brands, including Armani Exchange, Timex and Trek Bikes.
 

Boutique retailer Francesca's efforts to improve same store sales achieved disappointing results in the first quarter.

The company said same-store sales declined 2% due to lower transaction count, although direct-to-consumer sales rose 19%.